More about Jenufa

Jakub Hruša conducts Claus Guth’s Olivier award-winning production of Janácek’s Jenufa. A gripping opera of shame, betrayal and redemption.

Background
Corinne Winters (Jenufa) and Karita Mattila (the Kostelnicka) lead in Janácek’s evocative opera with a score that is infused with traditional folk melodies of the composer’s native Moravia. Music Director Designate Jakub Hruša conducts Claus Guth’s staging which is an ‘edgy, evocative’ (Telegraph) take on this poignant domestic drama.

The music of Jenufa
Janácek’s folk-inspired music movingly captures Jenufa’s progression from hope to despair to eventual radiant happiness, while her stepmother, the Kostelnicka, is one of opera’s most complex maternal figures. Writer Nigel Simeone describes the unique structure of Janácek's stirring music as such: ‘Every character has his or her own musical language, and Janácek sets down a pattern that will serve him for all of his mature operas. A theme, often as short as four notes, dominates each scene [of the opera] but then gives way to another, equally memorable'.

What is a Kostelnicka?
Jenufa's stepmother is referred throughout Janácek’s opera as ‘the Kostelnicka’, a title given to a village church-warden or elder. Initially presenting as a strong matriarch who is fiercely protective of Jenufa, the Kostelnicka has one of the more dramatic – and dark – character transformations across opera. As Jenufa's future is turned increasingly precarious by her illegitimate child, the Kostelnicka’s maternal instinct morphs into obsessive determination... In a small, stifling community, how far must a mother go to protect her child?

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