Festival preview: Destiny

This production of Janáček’s Destiny, which ceremonially opened the Janáček Brno 2020 festival, marked the return of one of opera’s finest directors, Robert Carsen. This creator of productions valued for their drama, poetry and artistic refinement has returned to Janáček´s opera work to expand it with a sixth production created specifically for the Janáček Opera at National Theatre Brno. Right from the first notes, the orchestral waltz from the overture of Destiny takes us amongst the members of noble spa-going society; simple natural prose was replaced here by the language favoured by decadent poets, as Janáček was inspired to produce this opera by a twenty-eight-year-old woman named Kamila Urválková, whom the composer met in August 1903 at his favourite spa, Luhačovice. Kamila told Janáček about her romance with the composer Čelanský, who expressed his disappointment with their relationship in the opera Kamila. Janáček was so enchanted by Kamila that he decided to create a “brand new, modern opera” in which her name would be cleared. He didn’t call Destiny an opera, however, but rather three episodes from a novel. This ‘book’ takes theatregoers to a completely different environment than those featured in his previous operas – after Jenůfa, Janáček´s fourth opera Destiny represents a musical and dramaturgical venture into another area entirely.