The Bartered Bride is a comic opera by Smetana about love, tradition, and community, set within a tightly knit village where personal choices are never entirely private.

For this production, I relocated the action to a rural British village in 1953, during a street party celebrating the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The village becomes a space of post-war optimism and scrutiny, a place where celebration and social pressure sit side by side.

At the centre is Marina and Johnny’s love story, shaped and observed by the wider community as expectations around an arranged marriage begin to take hold. The chorus is not outside the action but embedded within it, celebrating, influencing, and reshaping the world of the couple as it unfolds.

The final act transforms the street party into a communal, circus-like spectacle, with the village itself becoming both performer and audience. Featuring the Annette Adams School of Dancing alongside guest circus performers, the production embraces Smetana’s balance of comedy and humanity, exploring the joy, absurdity, and emotional intensity of communal life.