Abstract
With Jenůfa, Leoš Janáček created an opera of almost breathtaking emotional intensity. The moving story of Jenůfa and her stepmother, the sacristan’s widow, is set in a community gripped by narrow-mindedness, fear of the future, envy and jealousy. In this community, Jenůfa’s love for Števa is doomed to failure, and Jenůfa’s pregnancy out of wedlock leads to a catastrophe. For the sacristan’s widow, whose stepdaughter’s fate reminds her of the humiliations and emotional injuries she herself has suffered in the past, sees only one way to save Jenůfa’s future: she takes her stepdaughter’s new-born child from her, and the baby dies. The successful production by the Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov does not portray the society of a Czech village, but takes the three women – Jenůfa, the sacristan’s widow and the Old Buryja – from three generations and their complex relations with one another as the starting point for the tragic developments. The revival once again features the cast of the première; Pavel Cernoch will be joining the cast in the role of Števa, while Patrick Lange will be responsible for the musical direction.