Jenůfa

About

National Theatre Chorus
National Theatre Orchestra
National Theatre Opera Ballet

Leoš Janáček was enthralled by the Czech writer Gabriela Preissová’s realistic drama Her Stepdaughter, which had been staged in 1890 without great success. Janáček himself adapted the play into a libretto, while retaining the  original literary form, thus being one of the pioneers of opera sung in prose, not in verse, as had been the convention.

With an acute sense for earthy drama and with enormous empathy, he depicted human relationships amid the harsh universe of a self-contained village community, where everyone knows each other’s business. This milieu affects the life of the young Jenůfa and, particularly, governs the behaviour of her stepmother Kostelnička, who strives to maintain her reputation as a virtuous woman and the villagers’ respect. Determined to preserve her standing, she even goes so far as to secretly murder Jenůfa’s illegitimate child.

Jenůfa is an overwhelming drama about distrust, jealousy, various forms of love and the ability to forgive the unforgivable. Janáček completed the opera in early 1903.

Owing to the dispute between the composer and its then music director, Karel Kovařovic, the National Theatre in Prague rejected it. Consequently, Jenůfa was undertaken by the National Theatre in Brno, which gave its world premiere on 21 January 1904 at the Divadlo na Veveří. Prague’s National Theatre first performed Janáček’s opera, in a revised version, 12 years later. It was subsequently staged in Vienna (1918) and other cities. Today, Jenůfa is a repertoire staple at many opera houses worldwide. Our new production will be conducted by Norway’s Stefan Veselka and directed by Catalonia’s Calixto Bieito, who has previously created for the National Theatre an acclaimed adaptation of Janáček’s Katya Kabanova.