The Secret

Act I: In the town square of Bělá, the followers of two rival councillors, Kalina and Malina, are praising their respective champion. Bonifác, an ex-serviceman in Kalina’s household, is wooing Madame Róza Malinova, and through their dialogue we learn that twenty years earlier, the then-poor Kalina had asked for the hand of Róza, sister of Malina, but her parents forbade the marriage because of Kalina’s relative poverty. Kalina then married another relatively poor woman, while Róza never married. Kalina is now a widower and has had a house built for himself across the town square from the Malina's. Kalina and Róza meet each other in the square and, in front of the townspeople, bicker. Malina and Kalina, egged on by their supporters, start to trade insults and curry favour by plying the old ballad singer Skřivánek with beer. Trying to keep both men happy with a song that ends up describing Róza’s and Kalina’s plight, Malina is moved by the song and proposes that he and Kalina bury their animosity and he offers Kalina a little financial help so that he and Róza may marry. But Kalina is stung by the implication that he is still poor (though he does indeed owe the builders of his new house a substantial sum) and Róza now reveals why she is so cold towards Kalina – it is because the now-deceased Father Barnabáš had told her that Kalina had a secret that would have allowed him to become rich and thereby win Róza’s hand, had he wanted. Clearly, Róza surmises, his protestations of lov…

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