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Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa Returns to the Metropolitan Opera

Nov. 02, 2016

Leoš Janáček’s <em>Jenůfa</em> Returns to the Metropolitan Opera

Leoš Janáček‘s riveting opera, Jenůfa, returns to the Metropolitan Opera stage for the first time in nearly a decade with six performances from October 28 - November 17. The production, conducted by David Robertson, stars Oksana Dyka in the title role alongside Finnish soprano Karita Mattila, who took the stage as Jenůfa in the Met’s 2007 production and now returns in the role of her stepmother Kostelnička. The current Metropolitan Opera performances are using Universal Edition’s Critical Edition of the “1908 Brno Version,” which is based on changes to the original 1904 premiere score made by the composer between 1906 and 1913.

The opera tells the harrowing tale of Jenůfa, stepdaughter of the village sexton, Kostelnička. Based on Její pastorkyňa (Her Stepdaughter), a play by Czech writer and playwright Gabriela Preissová, Jenůfa has proven to be one of Janáček’s most enduring works. Unique in its starkly realistic, honest portrayal of its large cast, no one character is truly “good” or “bad”; rather the reality falls somewhere in between, much as it does in real life. On singing the works of Janáček, Mattila says:

What fascinates me [in] Janácek are the contrasts and the fact that they are not resolved and remain contrasts. His music is full of abrupt and rough contrasts. It is uncensored, uncleaned, raw, surprising and organic. But he doesn’t use contrasts as a shocking effect just for the sake of it. [He] must have had a deeper understanding of human nature.

Another distinct feature of the opera lies in its uncommon treatment of vocal melodies, which came about as a result of Janáček’s use of what he called “speech melody.” This concept was developed by the composer himself following years of studying Moravian folk tunes and speech patterns; it manifests itself in his operas as a heretofore-unseen integration of the rhythms, pitch contours, and inflections of conversational Czech into the musical line. 

For more information on Leoš Janáček and his other works, please visit universaledition.com.

Leoš Janáček
Jenůfa (1894-1903/1908)
an opera in three acts, from Moravian peasant life 
Brno version, critical edition, edited by Sir Charles Mackerras and John Tyrrell
libretto (Cz) by Gabriela Preissová, after the play ‘Her Stepdaughter’
for 4 sopranos, 2 altos, 3 mezzo-sopranos, 2 tenors, baritone, bass and chorus (SATTBB)
3.3.3.3-4.2.3.1-timp.2perc-bells.hp-str - stage orchestra: 2hn.toy tpt-xyl.bells-str(1.1.1.1.1)
120' 

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