Programs · Episode

JANÁCEK: Jenůfa

Program: At the Opera
Aired: Saturday, August 10, 2024 @ 6:00 pm
Hosted by Lisa Simeone

Janácek was in his sixties when the surprise success of Jenufa first brought him widespread fame. The opera is an undoubted masterpiece, telling a disturbing, yet inspiring story of multiple betrayals, gruesome murder and ultimate, if unlikely, forgiveness. We'll hear it on At The Opera in recordings featuring two sopranos acclaimed for their performances in the title role: Elisabeth Söderstrom and Karita Mattila.

FEATURED RECORDINGS:

Charles Mackerras, conductor
Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna State Opera Chorus
CAST: Elisabeth Söderstrom (Jenufa); Eva Randová (Kostelnicka); Petr Dvorsky (Steva); Wieslav Ochman (Laca); Marie Mrazova (Grandmother Buryjovka); Vaclav Zitek (Foreman); Dalibor Jedlicka (Mayor); Lucia Popp (Karolka); Ivana Mixova (Mayor's Wife)
(London 414483)

Bernard Haitink, conductor
Royal Opera House Orchestra and Chorus
CAST: Karita Mattila (Jenufa); Anja Silja (Kostelnicka); Jerry Hadley (Steva); Jorma Silvasti (Laca); Eva Randová (Grandmother Buryjovka); Jonathan Veira (Foreman); Jeremy White (Mayor); Lea-Marian Jones (Karolka); Carole Wilson (Mayor's Wife)
(Erato 0927-45330)

MORE ABOUT THE OPERA:

If you only knew operas from reading their stories on the printed page — without listening to the music — the world of non-comic opera might seem like a uniformly dark and dreadful place. Just think of all the operas featuring betrayal, emotional anguish and violent death as key elements.

But in any opera, the written story is only part of the picture. Add great music to that story, and you often wind up with a drama in which anguish and violence are transformed, becoming the means of profoundly beautiful expressions of the human condition.

There are plenty of examples, ranging from the straightforward, verismo operas we often think of as guilty pleasures, to the complex dramas of Mozart, Verdi and Strauss. And we've got one of the best of them all right here.

Janáček's Jenufa revolves around one of the worst crimes portrayed in any opera, the drowning of a newborn infant in an icy river. It's an act driven by narrow mindedness and cowardice — but also by love. And remarkably, the overall theme of the opera is forgiveness. When the title character's child is murdered by her own stepmother, Jenufa reacts not with calls for vengeance, but with tender absolution — set to some of Janáček’s most radiant music.

What's also remarkable is the unique role the opera played in its composer's life and career. Janáček may have been music's ultimate late bloomer. He was about 40, and still obscure, when he started work on a drama he called Her Stepdaughter. He kept plugging away at it for the next ten years. In 1904, when Janáček was 50, the piece premiered at a small theater in Brno, where it had a modest success — doing little to expand the composer's reputation.

Finally, the year after Janáček turned 60, the opera earned a major production, in Prague. It was a sensation. Before long, it was translated into German and performed in both Vienna and Berlin. Suddenly, Janáček was an international star, and he seemed to find new creative life.

During the last decade or so before his death, at age 74, Janacek wrote the popular "Sinfonietta," his famous Glagolitic Mass, two major string quartets and an entire body of operas, including Katya Kabanova, The Makropuolos Case and The Cunning Little Vixen. And the drama that got it all started was Her Stepdaughter, the opera we now know as Jenufa.

At the Opera explores the three acts of Janáček's JENŮFA through a pair of recordings, each featuring a soprano acclaimed for her interpretation of the title role. In a 1983 release, it's Elisabeth Söderström as Jenufa, with conductor Charles Mackerras leading the Vienna Philarmonic. We'll also hear a live, 2001 recording from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London. In that one, Karita Mattila is Jenůfa, with conductor Bernard Haitink.

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