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Leoš Janáček: Jenůfa (Její pastorkyňa) - Munich 1971 (Kubelik/ Varnay, Hillebrecht, Cochran, Cox)

Premiered in 1904, this opera (actually called 'Její pastorkyňa' or ‘Her Stepdaughter’ by the composer) is Leoš Janáček's best known work. The composer himself adapted the text of the opera from Gabriella Preissová’s play, Její pastorkyňa. This performance uses Max Brod's German translation of the Czech libretto.

Synopsis:
Set in an isolated village in Moravia between 1868-1890, Števa, the handsome mill-owner, and his half-brother Laca love their cousin Jenůfa, an orphan brought up by the Kostelnička (Sextoness) Buryjovka. Jenůfa returns Števa’s affection and becomes pregnant by him... only to be abandoned when the jealous Laca disfigures her face with a knife. Distressed by her step-daughter's dilemma and Števa's betrayal, the Kostelnička lies to Laca that Jenůfa's unwanted baby had died shortly after being born. Having boxed herself into a corner in her attempt to save Jenůfa and the infant from social stigma, she then drowns the 8 days old infant while the ailing Jenůfa sleeps. All seems to have worked out when Jenůfa recovers her health and finally fall in love with Laca finally... That is, until the baby's corpse is discovered in the thawing lake on their wedding day. If you would like to know how it ends, you’ll just have to get the DVD and find out.

This is an extraordinarily beautiful opera that bears the bucolic colors of the rural Moravia and its conservative population in the very fabric of its melody. Within the first minute of hearing the C♭ hammering from the xylophone that begins the orchestral prelude, you know that the work is set in a rustic rural place and that it would be far from laugh-inducing. There is no real ‘song’ in this show, but sung declamation that couple with the intensely dramatic orchestra to propel the story forward. So, it isn’t exactly an opera for those who are very new to the genre, though if you love orchestral music you’ll likely take to it like an anthoecologist to a venus fly's trap.

CAST:
Grandmother Buryjovka ::: Lilian Benningsen (contralto)
The Kostelnička ::: Astrid Varnay (mezzo-soprano)
Jenůfa, her stepdaughter ::: Hildegard Hillebrecht (soprano)
Števa Buryja ::: Jean Cox (tenor)
Laca Klemen ::: William Cochran (tenor)
Rafael Kubelik / Orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera
Wolfgang Baumgart/ Chorus of the Bavarian State Opera
Directed by ::: Günther Rennert

Samples:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLMEuNvl3K8 (Act I Prelude)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiC7gJHLVMU (The Kostelnička... so well portrayed I don't need to tell you non-German speakers what she's saying)

This is a beautiful ‘traditional’ production of the opera that really captures the essence of the grim Moravian town in the late 19th Century. Günther Rennert had a marvelous acting cast to work with and he coaxed a most convincing performance out of all of them. Even the chorus is kept busy whenever they’re on the stage interacting with each other without missing a beat of the music! According to Astrid Varnay's memoir, this recording spliced ”the best acts from three different performances for the final cut,” from the 1971 run of the opera at Nationaltheater in Munich. Being taken from the televised broadcast, the picture is a bit blurry, but the audio is quite good.

This DVD gives us the rare treat of seeing Astrid Varnay in a staged performance in the theatrically complex role of The Kostelnička. It is one of only 4 or so video recordings available of the artist widely considered as the Maria Callas of the German Repertoire. Never mind that the opera is now known as 'Jenůfa', the true heart of the show is the Kostelnička (after all, both Preissová’s play and Janáček's original title is ‘Her Stepdaughter). Have a peek at the second sample clip above and you'll get a good idea of what a traumatic experience it must have been for the live audience to experience Varnay's Kostelnička live! Her voice is still in excellent shape with a colorful middle and lower register capable of conveying warmth and contentment one moment, and demonic derangement in the next. Her a heavy-weight upper register cuts right through the chromatic orchestra of Janáček like a Finnish knife slices through butter. Her diction is a model of precision that lends the already potent libretto even more piercing.

Couple all that with her stage histrionics, and this is a mesmerizingly grotesquely human (in the best sense of the word) Kostelnička. Her stage presence is oppressive enough to hush the crickets and mute hyperactive canaries even while doing and saying nothing substantial in the first Act. Her Act II flight of morality chills your blood and makes you regret having ate such a big dinner before putting this DVD on. You would love to dismiss her as 'insane' or 'evil', but her repentance in Act III is so real that you find yourself shuddering at the recognition that you might not have done any better than the Kostelnička does should you find yourself in her position... And the very idea of it makes you want to die from Dramamine overdose. It is Varnay’s matter of fact way of going about doing the deed without trying to justify her character's actions that really sells the role. The DVD is worth buying if only to experience this Kostelnička alone.

In the title role of Jenůfa is Hildegard Hillbrecht, a handsome woman with a warm and sweet soprano voice that gets strangely blanched in its upper reach... Somehow that actually doesn’t hurt in this portrayal of this role, since Jenůfa really ever hit her high notes when she's in distress (and a normal woman doesn't sound beautiful when she is in distress anyhow). I’m surprised that her Jenůfa appears in Act II without any mark on her face (after all, she’s supposed to be 'too disfigured' for Števa to marry by then).

At any rate, she is a convincingly beleaguered Jenůfa who has very good chemistry with William Cochran’s perfectly temperamental boulder of a Laca (which fits this role to a tee). Both of them progressing believably from youthfulness to self-awareness and maturity by the end of the show. Jean Cox’s Števa is also thoroughly suitably shallow, though strains my imagination a bit imagining him as someone many sane women would seek to marry. A special mention should be made for Lilian Benningsen, whose awesomely natural acting makes the short role of Grandmother Buryjovka more memorable than it usually is.

Literally stoking this musical furnace on from the pit with the might of the stellar Orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera is Rafael Kubelik, a native of Bohemia who, by the sound of his conducting, might have been born to the beat of Janáček's music. The orchestra under his direction doesn’t merely accompany the voices, but pulses vibrantly as if it is the life beat of the village itself.

The bottom line: If you can find it (your best bet is the reliable Berkshire Record Outlet. Stay clear of any pirate offering of this thing from House of Opera, Opera Passion.com, or Premiere Opera, where getting what you think you've paid for would require enough luck to prevent Titanic from sinking), this performance is the deserted island DVD of Jenufa... And, considering that it is in German rather than the original Czech and that there is another wonderful DVD of Jenůfa out there (Glyndebourne Festival 1989 with Roberta Alexander and Anja Silja), that is saying a lot.

1 DVD. Run-time: 115 minutes. Sung in German with no subtitle.

Smorg is very grateful to our Music CL, Millinocket, for her speedy addition of this DVD to the Epinions database. :o)

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age