Word: jenufa
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...people who attended a recent run of the contemporary American composer John Adams' Doctor Atomic had not been to the ENO before, a startlingly high figure given that the opera borders on atonality for much of the first half. When the ENO promoted Leos Janacek's 20th century masterpiece Jenufa with a money-back guarantee for first-time ticket buyers, it didn't end up refunding a single ticket...
...Jenufa (London). The greatest of Leoš Janáćek's nine operas gets a recording worthy of its stature from Sir Charles Mackerras and Soprano Elisabeth Söderstr...
...spectacular philandering. In less amorous moments, he found time to compose three minor operas and The Excursions of Mr. Brouček, a light, satirical tale about a flight to the moon and the Hussite wars of the 15th century. He also wrote one powerful but somber verismo work: Jenufa, the story of a village girl made pregnant by the local womanizer, whose formidable foster mother kills her baby...
...Jenufa 's slow recognition in the U.S. bears coincidental resemblance to its composer's career. If ever there was a late bloomer, it was Janáček. A Moravian, he was professor of composition but wrote little of consequence himself before he was 40. He completed Jenufa in 1903 when he was 49. It received its "overnight" success a dozen years later. He wrote several other operas, including From the House of the Dead, which is almost a speculation on Dostoyevsky's novel, and The Makropoulos Affair, a fantastic showpiece for orchestra...
Rimmed World. Though it can be placed well enough among turn-of-the-century verismo works, Jenufa is an elusive opera in some ways. The setting is a Moravian village, and the composer knew its inhabitants with detachment and compassion. He creates no heroes, but a world of people working, flirting, taking naps, worrying about saving face or avoiding the draft. The plot, however, concerns deadly primal emotions: love, jealousy and ambition. Jenufa is pregnant by števa, a wastrel who chases every girl in town. Jenufa still hopes to catch him, but her world is invisibly rimmed...