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Music
and libretto
Leos Janacek
(after Her Stepdaughter (Jeji
pastorkyna) by Gabriela Preissova)
English
translation by
Otakar Kraus
and
Edward Downes
Brno
version
edited by
Sir Charles
Mackerras and
Dr John Tyrrel
Director
David Alden
Conductor
Mikhail Agrest
Cast
includes
Jenufa
Amanda Roocroft
Kostelnicka
Catherine
Malfitano
Laca
Stuart Skelton
Steva
Paul Charles
Clarke
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London Coliseum
9 - 28 October 2006
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How pleasant
and how unusual to be able
to say that this was a triumph
for the ENO. A co-production
with Houston Grand Opera and
Washington National Opera,
David Alden's return to the
Coliseum is powerful and convincing
albeit in places a little
unsubtle. The opera itself,
born of Janacek's struggles
both with music and theme,
and suffused with the desperate
feelings aroused in him by
the emotional torments and
then mortal illness and death
of his daughter, Olga, is
the work of a great genius
finding his voice through
devotion to craft. He wrote
the first act, itself a great
work, in 1896 and then came
a five year hiatus before
he could begin the writing
of the incomparably greater
second and third acts, completing
them in 1903. In this performance,
impressively controlled by
the rising Russian conductor
Mikhail Agrest, there were
no weak links and the music
was by and large done full
justice.
In the first act, all parts
were well sung and acted (including
a foreman sung so impressively
and with such stage presence
by Iain Paterson that first
visitors to the opera must
have expected him to turn
into a principal character,
Jenufa's next lover perhaps).
The magnificent second act,
one of the most devastating
in all opera, was all but
overwhelming. This is largely
given over to the Kostelnicka,
here Catherine Malfitano.
Although sometimes shrill
and melodramatic, she also
made a more sympathetic Kostelnicka
than the haughty and mono-dimensionally
evil character she is sometimes
made out to be, and she was
well up to the considerable
demands of the role. After
she leaves with the red-bobble-hatted
baby, the drugged Jenufa emerges
from the back bedroom and
takes over the stage. Amanda
Roocroft, a cut above the
worker peasants in the first
act, was here vulnerable and
affecting and distraught.
And in the third act, she
first seemed pale and drained
as if no longer holding any
positive expectations from
life and then filled out and
grew as she first forgives
the Kostelnicka for murdering
Stevushka and then, in the
shattering climax to the opera,
accepts Laca for what he is
- a good man with a simple
and constant love for her.
Amanda Roocroft makes a classy
Jenufa and sings the part
beautifully. It is possible
to see what about her captivates
Steva, but in this production,
it is hard to see what she
sees in him. Finely sung by
Paul Charles Clarke, this
Steva is repulsively pleased
with himself, a boorish fils-á-papa,
in appearance having something
of David Brent crossed with
some overdressed peacock in
light entertainment (Jonathan
Ross, perhaps). Truly disgusting.
At a profound level, Steva
should be disgusting: one
of the Kostelnicka's more
arresting lines is to the
effect that she hates the
baby just as she found its
father, Steva, revolting like
a white grub. Surely there
is also an echo here of the
composer father's incomprehension
that his daughter should ruin
her life for a hopeless man.
Laca can seem like a simpleton
and Stuart Skelton (immodestly
described in his programme
note as "one of the finest
heroic tenors of his generation")
did not entirely avoid that.
However, his singing was unquestionably
good, powerful, direct and
true. All the minor parts
were good: the grandmother
(although the character was
puzzling; she seemed to have
gone into a senior decline
in the third act, but recovered
to give a blessing to the
not obviously happy couple),
the mayor and his wife, villagers.
The set was soviet rustbelt:
in the first act, the "mill"
a light industrial works which
made a bit of a nonsense of
the mill wheel music and analogies,
grandmother in a kiosk as
if waiting to check in delivery
lorries; the Kostelnicka's
house surely too stark and
poor with barely a stick of
furniture and cardboard on
the windows keeping out the
prying eyes. Hearing the opera
in English allows one to appreciate
subtle psychological touches
in the libretto (the moment
in the last act when the Kostelnicka
says to Jenufa that she realises
she has loved herself more
than Jenufa was very striking).
This was a notably well directed
production, with all the singers
acting well and interestingly,
with very few of those embarrassing
moments all too common in
opera where one can see that
inspiration has failed and
it would be better if they
did, after all, just stand
and sing. Here there were
dramatic pauses, runs, faints,
gasps, all in the service
of the opera and consistent
with it.
This production should become
a staple of the ENO repertoire,
a worthy vehicle for the first
great opera of Janacek, who
in number composed more sublime
operas in the twentieth century
than any other. If there is
more where that came from,
the audience who saw this
Jenufa would be delighted.
A Katya or a Makropoulos Case
from this stable would be
a treat indeed.
James
Flynn |
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