The Cunning Peasant was the first of Dvorak’s operas to be performed abroad (Dresden in 1882, four years after the premiere), and it had a success at home in the years that followed Smetana’s Bartered bride. Much in it is owed to that work, with a plot of peasant marital confusions, but more markedly with an idiom that takes its cue from the bouncy rhythms and the often very affecting lyrical flowerings that can make for a charming aria. The comparisons also sometimes made with The Marriage of Figaro have little in them apart from a plot that includes a Princess changing clothes with her maid so as to expose her husband’s philandering. Josef Vesely, the amateur and amateurish librettist, had little command over the complications, and he set the not yet wholly expert Dvorak some tricky problems. Not surprisingly, it is the minor characters who come off best, in that they are simple types who give their composer some fairly obvious opportunities which he takes interestingly. A jolly duet in Act 1 might well fall very flat indeed; Dvorak makes it one of the most entertaining numbers in the score. This is sung in lively fashion by Leo Marian Vodicka, as Vaclav, one of Betuska’s rich suitors, and Karel Berman as her father Martin, all in favour of the match (later, Karel Prusa sings some of this part, perhaps because of session problems).
Betuska herself really needs a more lyrical line, and a greater warmth of voice, than is managed by Jitka Sobehartova, but she is not helped by the less than lively characterization given her by Vesely (and hence, in this case, Dvorak), as she clings to the somewhat wimpish Jenik. But on the whole the singers rise to the challenge, as does the conductor, Frantisek Vajnar, with some music that looks well forward from Smetana to Dvorak’s own more mature operatic manner. There are very few opportunities of hearing this uneven but engaging score, and it would be difficult to forecast a very long life for it in the catalogue, so collectors of Czech operatic rarities would do well to move quickly. They will find much to enjoy. There is a full text with English, French and German translations.
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