In the Well has a libretto by Karel Sabina, author of The bartered bride, and has been popular in its native land ever since its first performance in 1867. The tale is simple enough. Lidunka wishes to be certain that the face of her bridegroom she will, by folk tradition, see reflected in the village well on Midsummer Eve will be that of Vojtech, and not her mother’s wealthier choice, old Janek, so she consults the village witch, Veruna. Both men climb a tree so as to ensure that his is the reflection she sees, but Janek falls in just before she arrives, and to her horror presents his face to her. Eventually matters are sorted out.
The music is agreeable and well made, and the work could certainly qualify for a ‘What next?’ suggestion attached to The bartered bride. However, it is by some way less tuneful, and some of it – for instance, a very attractive moonlight interlude – seems closer to the world of early nineteenth-century German opera than to anything specifically Czech. Janek, jovially sung by Karel Berman, is given rather more lively characterization than the blander Vojtech, amiably though Vojtech Kocian sings him, which makes one think that perhaps mother knew best. Libuse Marova is a firm Veruna in a good Slavonic tradition of powerful contralto ladies, and, though she can phrase tenderly, Lidunka is a little shrilly sung by Daniela Sounova-Broukova when the going gets tough; this is not helped by a rather harsh recording. The booklet includes full text and translations into English (not bad), French and German.'