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An Overwhelming Theatrical Experience
Opera North brings
Janáček's 'Jenůfa' to Nottingham,
reviewed by MIKE WHEELER
Opera North has built up a proven track-record in Janáček. Tom Cairns' intensely gripping production of Jenůfa, first staged in 1995, and using the English translation by Otakar Kraus and Edward Downes, received performances to match from a uniformly strong cast. Cairns was also the designer, placing the action in a non-realistic but powerfully evocative visual setting (Theatre Royal, Nottingham, UK, 18 November 2015).
Janáček's operatic breakthrough, this village-life tragedy hinges on a tangled family relationship involving two half-brothers, Števa and Laca, the younger and older respectively, who both love their cousin Jenůfa, and Jenůfa's step-mother known only as the Kostelnička, or village sacristan...
Copyright © 29 November 2015
Mike Wheeler,
Derby UK
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