Jenůfa

Jenůfa belongs among Janáček’s most famous works and has been a permanent part of the repertoire of the Brno Opera. At its beginning stood the realistic drama by Gabriela Preissová, which the composer himself adapted into an operatic libretto. Although he had to shorten the dramatic text considerably, he managed to deepen even further the impact of this tragic story from the Moravian countryside. The wasteful and fickle Števa, the hot-tempered yet at heart kind Laca, and above all the relentless Kostelnička, whose effort to preserve her status and respect within the village community leads her to murder her foster daughter Jenůfa’s child. Janáček (1854–1928) captured these characters with masterful dramatic concision that chills us, while at the same time arousing compassion and understanding. The path to the final version of the work, marked by the death of the composer’s daughter Olga, was long and thorny. After its successful premiere in Brno in 1904, Jenůfa had to wait twelve long years before Janáček’s effort was finally crowned with deserved success on other domestic and international stages.