Leoš Janáček (1854-1928)
Jenůfa, opera in three acts, libretto by the composer (1904)
Jenůfa: Asmik Grigorian
Kostelnička Buryjovka: Karita Mattila
Števa Buryja: Saimir Pirgu
Laca Klemeň: Nicky Spence
Grandmother Buryjovka: Elena Zilio
Stárek: David Stout
Karolka: Jacquelyn Stucker
Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden/Henrik Nánási
Claus Guth (stage direction)
rec. live, 2 & 9 October 2021, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, UK
Sung in Czech. Subtitles: German, English, French, Korean, Japanese.
OPUS ARTE OABD7302D Blu-ray [138]
Jenůfa had not been seen at the Royal Opera House since 2001, until this new production (delayed by Covid) opened on 28 September 2021, just a few days before it was filmed at its second and fourth performances. (I attended the fifth and final performance.) Fortunately, it has taken very little time for a release on DVD and Blu-ray, because it is an important account both musically and as a new staging.
Director Claus Guth wrote in the Royal Opera House programme book for those performances that he resisted a setting in a historical village context in favour of evoking the universal aspects of the tale. There is no Act One village or stream, and no mill or mill wheel. Well, Janáček puts the sound of the wheel in his score at the outset. Guth treats it “metaphorically, as the millwheel of the system […] the unchanging uniformity of everyday life”. It is an interior life. The Act One set is enclosed in walls of timber planks, to which the villagers cling, rather distant from the action. The curtain for each act rises on a fourth wall of dark slats, with shadowy figures behind, raised after each prelude. Some seated figures are peeling potatoes or fruit, or sit on iron frame beds. Women are in black dresses, men in dark uniforms. The mood is one of disengagement, as in a prison or barracks, even when the women rock cribs suspended from on high.
For Act Two, the Kostelnička’s home is a cage assembled from the iron-frame bedsteads, the mattresses now heaped on the floor. The Kostelnička and Jenůfa peer through the wires of these frames at the outside world, as through a prison window. The village women now wear dark heavy cowls. Later they sit facing the wall, while a large black raven, symbol and messenger of death, dwells above the Kostelnička’s caged home. A bloodied child walks slowly across the stage. There is no door in any of the walls, so no way out. The atmosphere is one of oppression and menace. Act Three features wedding preparations, so adds a little colour to costumes, and a long dressed table.
Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian sings Jenůfa in her debut at Covent Garden. The performance can only add to her already considerable reputation, formed by several awards and a triumph as Salome at the 2018 Salzburg Festival. She sings here with consummate authority in a title role which is no less demanding musically and abve all emotionally. Vocally she has the range of pitch, volume and colour to bring the sufferings of the young woman vividly before us. Her relationships with Števa, Laca and especially the Kostelnička, are superbly drawn as they change over the course of the drama.It is a tribute to Guth’s direction and to Grigorian’s histrionic skills.
In 2001 at Covent Garden Karita Mattila took the title role. In this production, she sings the role of the Kostelnička. This veteran artist is also outstanding, notably in Act Two, which she dominates in her interactions with each of the other principals. Despite the awful infanticide, she almost manages to gain our sympathy in her final passages in Act Three. She must also have proved an invaluable coach for Grigorian, who virtually kneels at her feet at the curtain call.
The male leads are not quite on such a level, but then their roles are more circumscribed. Nicky Spence as Laca sings very well; his fine tenor has enough weight for his bigger moments. As Števa, Saimir Pirgu also looks and sings well as the vain but weak spoiled favourite. The smaller roles are all well cast.
The orchestra play very well for conductor Henrik Nánási, who impresses with his command of this unique composer’s idiom. The surround sound and the video on this Blu-ray disc are excellent. The score is the Brno version edited by John Tyrrell and Charles Mackerras. Those who know the work from older Supraphon recordings might miss such orchestral touches as the Wagnerian horns at the close (which are not by Janáček). There is a two-minute introductory extra, not worth the trouble of filming. But the production is coherent and compelling, though its near-remorseless intensity is not for the faint-hearted. But I do not know of a finer version musically, so this will be a top choice for anyone who is not averse to all contemporary operatic stagings.
Roy Westbrook
Previous review (DVD): Gregor Tassie (October 2022)
Other production staff
Designer: Michael Levine
Costumes: Gesine Völm
Lighting: James Farncombe
Choregraphy: Teresa Rotemberg
Screen director: Rhodri Huw
Video details
Picture format: 1080i/16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo/DTS-HD MA 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Published: November 7, 2022
