Ballina welcomes classic opera with an Irish accent
Amy Ní Fhearraigh (Mařenka), Egor Zhuravskii (Jeník) and John Molloy (Kecal) in the Irish National Opera’s The Bartered Bride which will be staged this week at Balina Arts Centre. Picture: Pato Cassinoni
What was your inspiration when you first started working on The Bartered Bride?
“When Smetana composed in 1866, he was celebrating Czech rural life while gently satirising its social conventions – the marriage brokering, the family scheming, the community gossip. We’ve decided to set the opera a little closer to home. Welcome to a dance hall in 1970s rural Ireland, where Big Tom rules the airwaves and everyone knows everyone else's business. Land, money, and social standing matter enormously. It’s a place where families negotiate futures over pints, parents have strong opinions on what makes a suitable match, and the whole village shows up to watch the drama unfold.
“Our circus rolls into town as a travelling country fair with a rodeo flair. The circus performers bring the fantasy (though decidedly not the reality) of the American West, destabilising the social order as they offer our villagers escape, excitement, and the dangerous possibility that there’s life beyond what their parents have planned for them.”
“We’ve embraced the challenge of bringing this vision to life in intimate spaces and stripped the opera down to its essentials to find its heart. Our orchestra of five players sits onstage, visible throughout and integral to the action. Our ensemble of eleven singers is pulling double- and triple-duty filling all the requirements of the piece, and in doing so have created their own little village onstage. You’ll experience the opera not as a distant spectator but up close and personal as part of the community itself.”
“At its heart, is an optimistic story. Our young lovers are outmatched, they have no money, no land, no leverage except their own wit and determination. But they outmanoeuver the marriage broker and win their future on their own terms. The whole village ends up celebrating with them, not despite the chaos but because of it. That’s the kind of hard won optimism I want right now, the kind that comes from watching ordinary people navigate impossible situations and come out dancing.”
“Setting the piece in 1970s Ireland isn’t about making it ‘relevant’, it already is. Smetana’s story of young people choosing their own lives against family expectation and economic pressure resonates wherever those tensions exist. We’re simply letting it speak with an Irish accent.”
