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Reviews, Stage Reviews

Janáček Brno Festival 2024 Review: Rusalka

https://operawire.com/janacek-brno-festival-2024-review-rusalka/

(Photo: Národní divadlo Brno) Fairytales often speak directly to our unconscious, revealing drives and truths that are not always apparent to our conscious selves. It is therefore not surprising that many tales are replicated across countries and cultures, even if the characters and details vary. The Slavic fable of Rusalka, for example, has counterparts with the French Melusine, Germanic Nixie {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Janáček Brno Festival 2024 Review: The Other Place

https://operawire.com/janacek-brno-festival-2024-review-the-other-place/

(Photo: Jakob Jira) Alongside the headline operas, the Janáček Brno Festival stages a number of student and alternative projects. One of the works on offer this year was a piece entitled “The Other City,” performed by Ensemble Opera Diversa, written by Czech composer and librettist, Ondřej Kyas, based on a 1993 novel of the same name by Michal Ajvaz. A {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Janáček Brno Festival 2024 Review: Jenůfa

https://operawire.com/janacek-brno-festival-2024-review-jenufa/

(Photo: Marek Olbrzymek) “Every stage work takes on new meanings with each new interpretation.” So reads the opening line of the program notes by dramaturg Marta Ljubková, writing about Janáček Brno Festival’s production of “Jenůfa.” She was being somewhat disingenuous. What was presented was not a change in emphasis or an exploration of hidden themes; rather, it was a heavy-handed {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Janacek Brno Festival 2022 Review: Katya Kabanova

https://operawire.com/janacek-brno-festival-2022-review-katya-kabanova/

(Photo: Festival Janacek Brno) Human beings need love and friendship to flourish and to pursue normal, balanced lives. Remove this support and replace it with abuse, neglect and contempt, and a person will become unable to function successfully. They will become maladjusted, unable to relate to others with ease and confidence, and suffer increasing periods of loneliness and isolation. Desperate {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Janacek Brno Festival 2022 Review: From The House Of The Dead & The Glagolitic Mass

https://operawire.com/janacek-brno-festival-2022-review-from-the-house-of-the-dead-the-glagolitic-mass/

(Photo: Marek Olbrzymek) Would any opera house be bold enough to present a work about the horrors of life in a gulag in which the guilty and innocent are thrown together to be abused, debased and left to die? Undoubtedly, the answer is yes! What if it were to be presented in a Christian context, in which Christ walks among {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Janacek Brno Festival 2022 Review: The Diary Of One Who Disappeared

https://operawire.com/janacek-brno-festival-2022-review-the-diary-of-one-who-disappeared/

(Photo: Festival Janacek Brno) Janacek’s song cycle “The Diary of One Who Disappeared” is a regular inclusion at the Janacek Brno Festival. Yet such have been the variety of performances, they can often appear as very different works. At the 2020 festival, the cycle was presented as a staged work using Janáček’s own staging instructions, with Pavol Breslik in the {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Janacek Brno Festival 2022 Review: The Weeping Fountain

https://operawire.com/janacek-brno-festival-2022-review-the-weeping-fountain/

(Photo: Festival Janacek Brno) In 1902, Janáček’s daughter, Olga, then only 20-years-old, went on a trip to visit her uncle in St. Petersburg. Being a keen admirer of Russia, she was planning to spend an extended period in the Russian capital to deepen her knowledge of the language and its culture, but events took a devastating turn: she caught typhus {…}

News

Corinne Winters, Nicky Spence & Tomasz Konieczny Lead Janáček Brno Festival 2022 Season

https://operawire.com/corinne-winters-nicky-spence-tomasz-konieczny-lead-janacek-brno-festival-2022-season/

(Credit: Janáček Brno Festival) Janáček Brno Festival has announced its 2022 season. For the purpose of this article we will focus on the vocal works only. A double bill of “From the House of the Dead” and “Glagolitic Mass” spotlights Roman Hoza, Gianluca Zampieri, Tigran Hakobyan, Lukáš Bařák, Jan Šťáva, Kateřina Kněžíková, and Jarmila Balážová. Jakub Hrůša conducts a production {…}

News

Festival Diary: Janacek Brno Festival 2020: Day 5

https://operawire.com/festival-diary-janacek-brno-festival-2020-day-5/

My final day at this year’s Janacek Festival ended with a performance of its awarding-winning production of “Jenufa,”  starring Karita Mattila as the Kostelnička, Pavla Vykopalova as Jenufa, Peter Berger as Laca and Richard Samek as Števa, in what was a well sung presentation. The conductor opted for a light reading which brought out the lyricism and folk melodies of {…}