Robert Tanitch reviews ENO’s Jenufa at London Coliseum.
JENUFA, Leos Janacek’s most popular opera, is notable for its passion, its compassion, its humanity and its sheer dramatic force.
Director David Alden’s production, with an expressionistic set by Charles Edwards, was first staged in 2006. The revival has a strong cast.
Alden takes the folk tale out of its 19th century pastoral setting and relocates it in a 20th century industrial Eastern European town. The factory workers are crude, vulgar louts.
Jenufa (Laura Wilde), a sweet young girl, is pregnant by Steva (Nicky Spence), a burly, swaggering good-for-nothing slob, who is not prepared to marry her or acknowledge the child. What does she see in this spendthrift drunkard wastrel?
She would be much better off with his half-brother, Laca (Peter Hoare) who is devoted to her. Luca is so jealous of Steva that he slashes Jenufa’s face with his knife to make her look ugly so Steva will ditch her.
The score, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth, has a thrilling impact, psychologically, sexually and religiously. The singing is impressive.
The second act has two great arias. The first, very powerful, is when the formidable and autocratic stepmother (Michaela Martens) agonises over what to do about the illegitimate baby and comes to a terrible conclusion.
The second aria, very tender, very loving, very affecting, is when Jenufa, not knowing the baby is dead, prays for his future.
The second act ends with a storm. The rattling and breaking of windows are Nature’s reaction to the murder and a forewarning of the damnation to come.
The third act is shattering. The dead baby is discovered on Jenufa’s wedding day and she is accused of the murder. The neighbours turn nasty. But, surprisingly, a tragic climax is avoided; and, most movingly, love triumphs.
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