Jenfa

Jenůfa (checo) (?·i) (Jeji Pastorkyňa, ‘Your stepdaughter’ in Czech) is an opera in three acts with music and a Czech script by Leoš Janáček, inspired by the theatrical piece Jeji Pastorkyňa of Gabriela Preissová. It is a story about infanticide and redemption, known for its crude realism. The full name of the opera is Její Pastorkyňa (The adoptive daughter). It was premiered on January 21, 1904 at the Teatro de Brno. It was composed between 1896 and 1902, and is among the first operas written in prose.

This is the first of Janáček's operas in which his distinctive voice can be clearly distinguished. It is a grim tale of infanticide and redemption. Like the original play, it is known for its unsentimental realism. Currently performing the composer's original version, Jenůfa's early popularity was fueled by Karel Kovařovic's revision of what was considered his eccentric style and orchestration. Thus altered, it was well received, first in Prague, and particularly after its premiere in Vienna, also worldwide. More than seventy years passed, until the public was able to hear the original version composed by Janáček.

Janáček wrote an overture for the opera, but decided not to use it. It was based in part on a song called Žárlivec (The Jealous Man). It is currently performed as a concert piece under the title Žárlivost (Jealousy), JW 6/10.

The composer dedicated the work to the memory of his dead daughter Olga, as he did his choral composition entitled the Elegy on the Death of his Daughter Olga.

In the manner of other confrontations between two performers, Jenůfa offers a duel between soprano (Jenůfa) and Kostelnička (for mezzo-soprano, the great character of the opera) in the same way that Richard Strauss does between Electra and Klytamnestra or Richard Wagner between Elsa and Ortrud in Lohengrin.

After its premiere, Jenůfa was revived in Brno in 1906, 1911 and 1913. And it was not until May 26, 1916, that it was performed triumphantly at the State Theater in Prague, with orchestration by Karel Kovarovic. He arrived in Germany in 1918, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in 1924 with Maria Jeritza and Margarete Matzenauer directed by Arthur Bodansky, to disappear from the theater's repertoire for the next fifty years. At the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires in 1950 with Tiana Lemnitz and Margaret Klose directed by Karl Böhm. To Barcelona, in 1965 and to Paris, in 1981. This opera is still in the repertoire, although it is not among the most performed; in the Operabase statistics it appears no.

Characters

Plot

Place: a village of Moravia

Epoch: the centuryXIX

The drama hinges on an intricate set of relationships in a town. Before the opera begins, the two sons of a Buryja mill-owning grandmother have both been married twice, had children, and died. His wives have also died, except for Kostelnička (widow of the sacristan), the second wife of the youngest son and Jenůfa's stepmother. According to custom, only Števa, the eldest son from his first marriage, will inherit the mill, which means that his half-brother Laca and his cousin Jenůfa have to find a livelihood of their own.

Act I

Jenůfa, Laca and Grandma Buryja wait for Števa to come home. Orphaned Jenůfa, in love with Števa and secretly pregnant, worries that he may have been drafted into the army. The boy has gone to inspect the recruiting center; if he is conscripted into the army, he will not be able to marry Jenůfa and thus hide his dishonor from her. Laca, in love with Jenůfa, expresses his bitterness against the favorable position of his half-brother at home. As he complains he tinkers with a knife, finding it blunt, he gives it to the mill foreman to sharpen.

The tense wait is broken when the foreman tells them that Števa hasn't been recruited after all, much to Jenůfa's relief which only adds to Laca's frustration. The others leave, and Jenůfa is left alone waiting to greet him. Števa appears with a group of noisy soldiers, extremely drunk and bragging about his skill with girls. He asks for music and drags the saddened Jenůfa to dance with him.

Kostelnička appears in this tumultuous scene, silences the musicians. The boy's attitude is so irresponsible, frivolous and immature that Kostelnička, Jenůfa's stepmother, forbids him to marry her until after a trial year. The soldiers and her family leave Števa and Jenůfa alone, and she begs him to love her, but he, unaware of her embarrassment, gives her distracted answers and leaves.

Lac returns, as bitter as ever. He tries to win over Jenůfa by criticizing Števa, but she sides with her lover regardless. Laca confesses his love to Jenůfa, but she rejects him unceremoniously. Laca, enraged, says that Števa would never look at her again if she were not hers because of her rosy cheeks, and deliberately marks Jenůfa's cheek with a spoon so that by being disfigured, she loses her attractiveness to him. Steva's eyes.

Act II

A few months later. Closed night of a harsh winter. Kostelnička's house, isolated on the outskirts of the village. It's been a week since Jenůfa gave birth to a baby boy in absolute secrecy and is in bed with a fever. Jenůfa's face is still disfigured, but she is happy in loving the baby. While Jenůfa is sleeping, Kostelnička calls Števa and demands that he take responsibility for her. He replies that he will secretly provide money, but no one must know that the child is his. His love for Jenůfa ended the day Laca marred her beauty, and he is now betrothed to Karolka, the mayor's beautiful daughter.

Števa leaves and Laca enters. She still doesn't know the truth about the child. Since Kostelnička has not been able to convince Števa to recognize her son and marry Jenůfa, now he tries it with Laca, who, unlike Števa, has not forgotten the girl and has visited her periodically expressing his love for her. Kostelnička decides to tell Laca the whole truth, but he expresses his refusal to marry Jenůfa, and thus recognize the hated Števa's son as his own. Fearing that Jenůfa will be left unmarried, Kostelnička quickly lies that the child is dead. Laca leaves, and Kostelnička finds herself in the position of making the lie that he has told come true. She wraps the child in a shawl and leaves the house, intending to leave him in the middle of the snow.

Jenůfa wakes up half-delirious from fever and prays for her son's future, but Kostelnička returns and makes Jenůfa believe that she has been in a feverish torpor for two days, and that during that time his son has died. Laca appears and gently comforts Jenůfa, asking if they will spend the rest of her life together. Seeing the tenderness of the couple, Kostelnička tries to convince herself that she has done what she should.

Single page of the original partition that is preserved

Act III

Two months later, spring. Kostelnička house arranged to celebrate the marriage of Jenůfa and Laca. Everything seems to be fine again, except for Kostelnička who is nervous. The guests arrive, including the mayor and his wife, with his daughter Karolka, now Števa's fiancée. Števa and Karolka are visiting, and a chorus of peasant girls sings a wedding song. Before heading to the church, Jenůfa and Laca kneel before the unbalanced Kostelnička to receive her blessing.

Just then, a huge commotion is heard outside the house. The frozen corpse of a newborn has been discovered when the snow that covered it melted. They bring the baby and Jenůfa recognizes the clothes of his little girl, and in her grief she seems guilty of the murder. People start harassing Jenůfa, but Laca resolutely comes to her defense. Kostelnička, unable to bear the terrible stress she has endured for two months any longer, breaks down and confesses her crime.

Jenůfa is initially horrified, but upon hearing the whole story, that her stepmother was only moved by her love for her, she forgives her. Karolka understands to what extent her boyfriend Števa is an irresponsible coward, and she leaves him. Kostelnička, on the verge of madness, is taken to prison to be tried and sentenced. Laca and Jenůfa remain united and set out on the path to seek a better future.

Featured Arias

• "In a moment" [Co chvíla] (Kostelnička)
• Jenůfa Prayer (Jenůfa)

Discography