Jenůfa
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Jenůfa |
| Original title: | Její pastorkyňa |
| Original language: | Czech |
| Music: | Leoš Janáček |
| Libretto : | Leoš Janáček, after Gabriela Preissová |
| Premiere: | January 21, 1904 |
| Place of premiere: | National Theater , Brno |
| Playing time: | approx. 110 minutes |
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Jenůfa is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček , based on the play Your Foster Daughter ( Její pastorkyňa , also the Czech title of the opera) by Gabriela Preissová (premiered in 1890).
The first performance of the opera Její pastorkyňa took place on January 21, 1904 in the Czech National Theater in Brno . On May 26, 1916, a version modified by Karel Kovařovic was the first widely perceived performance in Prague . An article by Max Brod in the Berlin magazine Die Schaubühne in the November issue of the same year made the Czech composer famous in German-speaking countries at one stroke. Brod was also engaged by the Viennese music publisher Universal Edition for the German translation of Její pastorkyňa . On February 16, 1918, the German premiere under the (new) title Jenůfa took place at the Vienna Court Opera , with Maria Jeritza in the title role and Hugo Reichenberger on the conductor's podium. From here the work made its way to the great stages of the world.
action
First act: Landscape with a mill.
Jenůfa is expecting a child from her foster brother Števa, and only marrying him could save her from the shame of a single pregnancy in the small village - and thus from suicide. Števa, blonde, pretty and darling of women, especially in the pattern , and should he be taken Jenůfa sees no way out of their situation. Nobody except her and Števa knows about the pregnancy. Then the soldiers return and happily report that Števa was not taken. A fun choir and soldiers dance follows. The sexton, Jenůfa's foster mother and dominant personality of village life appears, and puts an end to the hustle and bustle. She realizes that Števa is drunk and forbids marrying Jenůfa unless he does not allow drinking for a year. This throws Jenůfa into despair. Laca, her second foster brother and Števa's stepbrother, also loves her and disfigured her cheek with a knife in wild jealousy.
Second act: sexton's room, six months later, winter.
Jenůfa gave birth to her child in secret and is hidden in the house by the sexton to save Jenůfa and the family from the outrageous disgrace of having a child born out of wedlock. Both still hope that Števa will confess to the boy - he is now eight days old - and marry Jenůfa. But that has not shown up for months. While Jenůfa is sleeping, Števa comes to the sexton, who tries to persuade him to marry. Števa refuses, however, on the grounds that Jenůfa has turned his cheek scary and so serious since the accident. He's already engaged to someone else. He agrees to pay for the child. As soon as Števa has left the house, Laca appears and declares his love for Jenůfa to the sexton. In order to save Jenůfa's future, the sexton tells about the child and takes refuge in a lie: the newborn died shortly after birth. In the next scene she decides to drown the child in the icy water and in this way give Jenůfa a chance for a good future. When Jenůfa wakes up and finds neither her mother nor her child, she seeks consolation in prayer to Mary. The sexton returns and claims that the child died while Jenůfa was feverish. When Laca returns, the sexton gives both of them her blessing.
Third act: sexton's room. Two months later.
Jenůfa and Laca want to get married today. Laca has shown himself to be a faithful lover and bitterly regrets the bloody act of the past. He even forgave his stepbrother Števa and invited him to the wedding. The sexton provided the equipment. She has been considered sick for some time, suffering from pain and insomnia.
A village girl choir brings a bouquet of flowers and sings a song for the couple. When the sexton wants to bless the two bride and groom, the shepherd boy rushes in with the news that a dead boy has been found in the ice. Jenůfa recognizes her son in the child's body. The sexton pled guilty to the assembled and angry village community. Jenůfa forgives her stepmother as she realizes her good intentions behind the murderous act. In addition, Števa's new fiancée Karolka, the judge's daughter, breaks the engagement with him. The judge leads the sexton away, and Jenůfa wants to end her life lonely, but Laca's love is greater and triumphs over all suffering and is finally reciprocated by Jenůfa.
Emergence
The composition of the opera stretched over several years. Since the original score has been destroyed, not all of the dates are precisely known. The first drafts come from 1894 to 1895, the year in which the score began to be written down. Její pastorkyňa was Janáček's third opera and his first, in which he wrote an orchestral score from the beginning and not, as in the previous ones, a piano score . In 1897 the writing of the first act was probably finished. Then there was a longer break, due to the composition of the cantata Amarus and other occupations. Janáček only resumed work at the end of 1901 and completed the second act by early summer 1902. On January 25, 1903, the writing of the opera was finished. Janáček's daughter Olga, to whom the work is dedicated, died on February 26, 1903 during the subsequent fine-tuning.
Reception history
Její pastorkyňa was premiered on January 21, 1904 at the Czech National Theater in Brno and achieved considerable success. There were 11 performances in Brno and on tour. In 1908 a piano reduction was printed, supported and initiated by the Brno club pratel umeni . A version with deletions by Janáček's pupil Hrazdira as well as changes to the singing and orchestral parts by Janáček himself was used as a template for printing. Janáček kept retouching until the last performance of this version in Brno in March 1913. After the work had been accepted by the Prague National Theater (after several unsuccessful attempts) , the director Karel Kovařovic developed a "new version" with several deletions, the so-called "Prague version" from 1916. Kovařovic "skillfully smoothed and expanded Janáček's orchestration" ( John Tyrrell, 2000), especially the final scene of Act 3. The first performance in Prague took place on May 26th 1916 (conductor: Kovařovic, director: Robert Polák, Jenůfa: Kamila Ungrová, sexton: Gabriela Horvátová). From then on, the opera was played everywhere in the version by Kovařovic. The score of the Vienna Universal Edition (1918) reproduced Kovařovic's revised orchestration without comment. Charles Mackerras and John Tyrrell tried painstakingly to clean the score of Kovařovic's smoothing and retouching and to use the Brno orchestral parts and the vocal score from 1908 to create a completely reconstructed score left by Janáček. In 1996 the score of the opera was published by Universal-Edition in the new old version. After 80 years of performance history, the original Brno version has since prevailed.
music
Jenůfa is a thoroughly composed opera. It is noteworthy that the text is prose . The musical scenes, which flow seamlessly into one another, are composed of closed structures and freer, but always symmetrical, parts with small melodies. The melody , like the harmony with its characteristic, predominantly rich and dark tones, is deeply rooted in national folk music . The orchestral movement as a background to the word melody is transparent, often polyrhythmic and repetitive, and does not crush the voices even with expressive outbursts. The speech melody serves as a guide for finding the right expression in the tone-poetic interpretation of the situation, but is not raised to the design principle.
Cast of the premiere
| role | Pitch | Premiere performance January 21, 1904 (conductor: CM Hrazdira) |
|---|---|---|
| Jenůfa | soprano | Marie Kabeláčová |
| Laca Klemeň | tenor | Alois Staněk-Doubravský |
| Števa Buryja | tenor | Bohdan Procházka |
| Kostelnička Buryjovka | soprano | Leopoldina Hanusová-Svobodová |
| Grandmother Buryjovka | Contra-old | Věra Pivoňková |
| Stárek | baritone | Karel Benýško |
| mayor | bass | Alois Pivoňka |
| Mayor's wife | Mezzo-soprano | Ema Kučerová |
| Karolka | Mezzo-soprano | Růžena Kasperová |
| Choir: recruits, servants, girls, townspeople, musicians | ||
literature
- John Tyrrell: Foreword. In: Jenůfa. Your stepdaughter. Music by Leoš Janáček. Piano reduction, Brno version (1908). Universal Edition UE 30144, o. O. o. J. [Vienna, 2000]
- Leoš Janáček: Jenufa. Your stepdaughter. Opera in three acts. Brno version (1908). Libretto by Leoš Janáček based on Gabriela Preissová. Translated into German by Max Brod . Afterword by Henning Mehnert. Reclam, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-15-018296-4 ( Reclam's Universal Library 18296).
- Nicholas John (Ed.): Jenůfa. Katya Kabanova: Leoš Janáček. Calder, London 1985, ISBN 0-7145-4081-1 ( English National Opera Guides 33), (English).
- John Tyrrell: Janáček's Operas. A Documentary Account. Faber and Faber, London et al. 1992, ISBN 0-571-15129-9 (English).
- Teresa Hrdlicka: “The greatest possible singability and fluency” - On the German translation of Janáček's opera “Jenůfa” in 1918. In: Austrian music magazine. 58th year 2003, issue 2, pp. 18-27.
- Clemens Höslinger : The first performance of Janáček's “Jenufa” at the Vienna Court Opera (1918) and its history. In: Michael Jahn (Ed.): From Martha to Daphne. Writings on Viennese Opera History 1, Vienna 2005, pp. 215–232.
Web links
- Janáček Lexicon (Jenůfa under J3)
- Work data on Jenůfa based on MGG with discography at Operone
- Marketa Maurova: Max Brod and Janacek's “Jenufa” journey into the world. Radio Prague from February 22, 2004
- Jenůfa. In: Website of the Vienna State Opera, 2010/2011 season
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eva Drlíková: Leos Janacek, Život a dílo v DATech a obrazech . Opus Musicum, Brno 2004, ISBN 80-903211-1-9 , p. 65 .
- ↑ Bohumír Štědroň: Janáček ve vzpomínkách a dopisech . Topičova edice, Prague 1946, p. 153-154 .
Beginning of a novel (1894) | Jenůfa (1904) | Mr Brouček's excursions (1920) | Káťa Kabanová (1921) | The cunning little fox (1924) | Šárka (1925) | The Makropulos Case (1926) | From a house of the dead (1930, posthumous) | Osud (1958, posthumous)