Janácek : Jenufa
The Chorus of Jenufa
The Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Stuart Stratford
It's been close to 40 years since Welsh National and Scottish Operas teamed up to produce a ground-breaking series of five Janácek operas, directed by David Pountney. At that time, these works were hardly known, certainly not outside of London, and for many of us, they were a revelation. Jenufa was the first to be staged, the first of Janácek's mature operas, and arguably his most accessible one, and it left an indelible impression on me - I had maybe heard the Sinfonietta a couple of times, but not much else, and Jenufa turned out to be an eye-opener (and ear-opener) of the first magnitude. A new production, therefore, while welcome, was always going to have quite something to live up to.
Director Annilese Miskimmon has relocated the action to rural Northern Ireland, and updated it a little to 1918. It's not a bad idea, the setting seems to work well enough, though the whole question of the draft, in that place at that time, was an infinitely more complex affair than it would have been in Moravia at the turn of the century. Furthermore, I felt it slightly undermined a small but subtly important point - that Steva has, in all likelihood, bought his way out of conscription. There were one or two other little things in the direction which came up short, particularly the end. I know it's a particularly British truism that a cup of tea is the solution to all ills, but right at the end like that was a touch ridiculous. The end of the second act, too, seemed curiously aimless, nothing happening on stage to give form to the stunning hammer-blows of the orchestra, as the Kostelnicka's iron will finally crumbles in the face of her terrible decision and action. Finally, I did think it mildly perverse that the director took the trouble to translocate proceedings to Ireland, only to have the opera performed in Czech. Not that I wasn't happy to have the original language, but the Pountney productions were performed in English, so it wouldn't have been disturbing to keep an English text for an Irish setting. However, on the whole, the Irish setting was an acceptable variation, though it didn't really make the characters and situations seem any more relevant to me than they already had been.
In a way, however, it was symptomatic of the performance as a whole; there were plusses and minuses all around, not just in the staging. I found much of the chorus work just a touch sloppy and lacking in precision. Although there was some lovely playing coming from the orchestra at times, Stratford never quite got the sound right, to my mind. However lushly lyrical Janácek's orchestral score might get - and it certainly can be - it should never turn into an outright wallow, à la Richard Strauss. There's a quality of leanness about it, and a sort of translucency of texture, and I found that slightly lacking tonight.
Sam Furness was a bit under-parted vocally as Steva, but played him very persuasively. Anne-Marie Owens was excellent as Grandmother Buryjovká, both vocally and dramatically, as she progressively realises that her own unthinking partiality has contributed to the tragic events, and of the other small parts, Rosalind Coad made a strong impression as the pert and spoiled Karolka. Peter Wedd was a solid Laca, maybe not quite impulsive enough in the first act, but reasonably convincing for the rest, and vocally sound, though I'd have liked to hear a more luminous timbre at times, particularly at the end.
The opera revolves around the two sopranos, Jenufa and the Kostelnicka, however. Lee Bisset sang impressively, with a fine, open sound, but I felt that dramatically she lacked vulnerability, and vocally, she could have used a few more degrees of dynamic variation - she never really seemed to get below mezzoforte in terms of volume. Kathryn Harries, on the other hand, may not quite have the voice she once had, but has lost nothing of her imposing stage presence. And even with a heavy vibrato, and a few drop-outs in the notes, she brought a range of expression and colour to her singing and acting that put almost everyone else to shame. Here was determination and tenderness, resentment and repentance, a Kostelnicka to be reckoned with in every dimension. This was the performance that lifted the evening out of the ordinary and into the compelling, a show-stealer if ever I saw one.
[Next : 15th April]
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