Programme
Lesser Free Trade Hall, Northern School Of Music (NSM)
1952

The Bartered Bride! This was the first opera that the school over produced. It's a comedy about true love triumphing over ambition and money. So there used to be things called "marriage brokers" who were people that did for your daughter what accountants now do for your mortgage deals?

Anyway, the school was really proud of its efforts. A Guardian article at the time claimed that it was “gay and competent... “bringing off an ambitious performance so well... No opportunity was missed in the production which was complete with circus and ballet. There seemed to be no limit to the number ingenuity could place without crowding on the stage, but by the look of things even Vasek was a prize to be sought after, for girls vastly outnumbered boys. Are there more girl music students than men, or had all the village menfolk gone for soldiers?”

Ref: NSM/20

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.