The Bartered Bride

The Bartered Bride (in Czech, Prodaná nev?sta) is the second opera of eight by Bed?ich Smetana. It is a comedy. The Czech libretto is by Karel Sabina.

Plot

Ma?enka and Jeník want to marry. However, Ma?enka?s father, Kru?ina, has other ideas. He wants Ma?enka to marry a boy she has never met, Va?ek, the son of Micha, who is a wealthy landowner. The marriage-broker Ke?al is hired to broker the marriage between Ma?enka and Va?ek. Ke?al is made aware of the relationship between Ma?enka and Jeník, and becomes determined to break them up in order to facilitate the marriage of Ma?enka with Va?ek. Ma?enka and Va?ek meet each other by accident, and while Ma?enka works out who Va?ek is, Va?ek, on the other hand, is too much of a simpleton to realize who she is, and Ma?enka starts painting a picture of Va?ek?s intended bride as a woman who would make his life a total misery if he should marry her. This turns Va?ek off the idea of marrying his intended wife, and also makes him interested in this girl who obviously has his best interests at heart. Meanwhile, Ke?al starts his campaign to pay off Jeník, so that Jeník will renounce his right to marry Ma?enka. Ke?al eventually reaches a price with Jeník finds agreeable, and Jeník agrees to barter his bride away for 300 guilders. Jeník also specifies that this is on condition that Ma?enka marries Micha?s son. Since Ke?al intends Ma?enka to marry Va?ek, so that he can ger his money, he readily agrees. As soon as the contract is signed, the entire town repudiates Jeník.

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A travelling circus comes to town, and Va?ek becomes entranced with the gypsy, Esmeralda. There is some trouble with one of the acts, and Va?ek is convinced to assist the circus. Ma?enka is angry with Jeník for what he has done, and she angrily turns her back on him and agrees to marry Va?ek. When both sets of parents meet with Ma?enka, the appearance of Jeník at the meeting results in the revelation that Jeník is the long-lost son of Micha from his first marriage, and that Jeník had been hounded out of house and home by his stepmother, Háta (who is also Va?ek?s mother). As a result of this revelation, the terms of the contract between Ke?al and Jeník, whereby Jeník gave her up (that Ma?enka marry the son of Micha), allows Ma?enka to marry either Jeník or Va?ek. Ma?enka chooses Jeník, and Ke?al is left with the embarrassment of having paid Jeník 300 guilders in order for Jeník to give up the right, to marry Ma?enka, to Jeník, himself. At this time, a frightened child rushes in and exclaims that a bear has escaped from the circus. As everybody cowers, the bear wanders in, and pulls off its head, revealing that it was just the immature Va?ek disguised in a bear costume for the circus.

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