Janacek: Jenufa -- Glyndebourne [1989] [DVD] [2001]

If you have never been to Glyndebourne but would like to get the feel of the place from a recorded performance, I promise that you will get none of it from this one. It is very good indeed but it might be from anywhere. Apart from Strauss and Puccini, there is probably no serious 20th-century opera that is easier to come to terms with than Jenufa. The story is harrowing, but all in a very operatic way as that term might be applied to Verdi. The narrative line is simple and direct and does not strain our credulity, at least not by operatic standards, the characters are few and strongly identifiable, and the pace of the action is very well calculated. Clarity has obviously been a major objective in this production, and the simplicity of the sets seems designed to focus attention on the action and the music. The musical style is highly rational in the best sense – free from hyperbole, the vocal parts reasonably pitched, lyrical up to a point and not afraid of word-repetition but avoiding formal arias and ‘numbers’ except for the choruses towards the end and even cleverly steering clear of cadences in the interests of continuity, the orchestral parts interesting in their own right but always subordinate to the voices.

There is everything to be said for DVD as the medium for bringing opera into the home. In sound alone the very greatest performances inevitably lose something – they were simply not written just to be heard. That said, this is not just ordinary drama, but music-drama, and within reason I for one am quite happy to suspend disbelief up to a point if the music is well enough done. For me Roberta Alexander as Jenufa does not look the part in the least, and I do not care in the least given her fine acting and superlative singing. She shares the spotlight with the Kostelnicka and in this role the tall and imposing Anja Silja is totally convincing in every respect – stagy in the right way at her first entrance, casting the shadow of doubt and misgiving everywhere about her, thrilling when left alone with her inward torment, and dominating the scene in her final confession. The male roles – the thoughtless Steva and the confused Laca – are admirably sung, acted and directed, and there is nothing that I feel like trying to criticise when the whole concept of the work is as well realised as it is here. Congratulations to Glyndebourne, but 5 minutes into the production I had forgotten all about them, which is as it should be.

I remember years ago reading a review of 'Jenufa' which said it carried 'a matchless emotional charge'. That's true. There is something about the music that constantly demands involvement - indeed, tears, of sadness, empathy or joy. It's a grim story which somehow resolves itself into hope at the end, but at great cost. I can pay this production no greater compliment than to say that it does this astonishing opera full justice. The casting is spot on. Roberta Alexander sings magnificently and carries herself onstage as if she actually were the desperate, anguished heroine, aware of every moment of hope and despair. Philip Langridge, in the difficult role of Laca, who must be brutal and apparently callous in his (he believes) doomed love for Jenufa and bitter at his treatment by those around him, sings equally well and just about engages our sympathy as he broods and snarls. Anja Silja was a famous Kostelnicka and her singing is astonishingly powerful and commanding - born for the part, I'd say. When she makes her first entrance and scolds the young ones for thoughtless behaviour, she commands the stage absolutely. The set is spare and realistic, the costuming good and the direction excellent, and I really take my hat off to those singers, all of them, for acting with such involvement - to Mark Baker as Steva, for example, stumbling and falling drunkenly in Act One, his bottle spewing liquid all over the place, in a completely convincing depiction of the irresponsible drunken young man that he is (and he has to sing too!). The LPO under Andrew Davis play heroically (it's not an easy score) and Janacek's wonderful music hits the viewer as it should. Every moment of this DVD is compelling and, loving this opera as I do, I am delighted with it - five stars without question, and I wish I could give it more.

Just before the Glyndebourne Opera House was re-built, the television rights for a couple of years, were owned by the old ITV franchise-holder TVS. This version of Jenufa comes from the end of that era after thier production teams had come to know the old opera house well. The sound is beautifully mixed and digitally recorded, and this transfer lovingly recaptures this famous love story in the realistic if rather dry acoustic. The noisy picture quality shows it's age in places but the performances are sensational, though the set very stylised. A must for Jenufa fans everywhere.