Musc Chat: The Most Harrowing Three Minutes in All of Opera!
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- Опубликовано: 4 фев 2022
- Opera is full of terrifying moments featuring women in extremis, but there is nothing quite like the Kostelnička's Act Two monologue from Janáček's Jenufa. This is the scene where Jenufa's foster mother decides to "solve" her problems by murdering Jenufa's newborn baby. It's an emotional gut punch, and one of truly great moments for a compelling singing actress. Here we have the exceptional Nedezhda Kniplová on Supraphon Records. Hold on to your seats!
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Listening to Jenúfa reduces me, too, to a puddle. My choice recording is that of Mackerras with Söderström and Randová (which goes back to Janáček's original version). The composer's wife recounts in her memoir: "one evening, Olga [their daughter] said to Leoš: 'Father, please play Jenúfa for me - you know I won't live to hear it'. Leoš sat at the piano and started playing. I couldn't stand it, and fled from the room". I visited the Janáček house in Brno - that piano still stands there in the living room. I replayed that episode in my mind while there - that, I dare say, was a harrowing scene indeed.
By the way, the opera ends twice: first, at the shattering exit of the Kostelnička, accompanied by the mayor, on her way to trial; the second - when Jenúfa and Laca finally unite in a huge embrace. It takes a musico-dramatic genius like Janáček to be able to introduce these two climaxes one after the other without having the first belittling the second. Shostakovich purportedly tagged his fifth symphony as an "optimistic tragedy". That title suits this opera perfectly.
Incidentally, the Cleveland Orchestra is doing a concert performance of this opera as their season finale in May 2025 I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go, but you just made me realize what a wonderful opportunity this is!
There are more Janacek scenes of this quality. The other ones: final scene of "Makropulos", the final scene oft Katja Kabanowa, the final scene of Osud, the scene of Shishkow in "The House of the dead".
I recently listened to Jenûfa without knowing a thing about it except that it was by Janáček. When the scene you selected came up, my blood ran cold: I couldn't believe this was actually going to happen. The music, the libretto, the singing all contributed to a feeling of helpless dread. After the Act was finished, I needed a bit of a break.
Act III was also intense but Jenûfa's move to forgiveness was as unexpected as it was strangely satisfying.
A masterpiece with its own tragic story getting to the stage.
Great choice, David!
What a splendid,, thouroughly heart wrecking and harrowing choice is the Kostelnička-scene! Kudos to both you and Janáček!
If you are planning on a series of 'Harrowing Moments in Opera', may I propose the last ten minutes or so of Poulenc's opera ""Dialogues of the Carmelites", where the Carmelites on the Place de la Révolution, one by one, walk towards the guilliotine, whilst singing the hymn "Salve Regina". The relentlessly forward pressing momentum of the rhytmically tight, 'march'-like music underpinning the whole scene; the sound of the guilliotine; the chant of the nuns, gradually fading as they are beheaded one by one... It's a stroke of tragic genius, harrowing in just another way than the village tragedy of Janáček.
The extra-musical fact that this scene and some of the plot of the opera was based on an actual incidence during 'the Reign of Terror' under the French Revolution somewhat contributes to the horror of it all. But even if you didn't know of that, anyone left untouched by the scene, must themselves be in some state of rigor mortis!
The best part of the Salve Regina isn't even about the guillotines you mentioned, it's Blanche's solo line after all the Carmelites but her have been beheaded; she appears unexpectedly, changing her mind about betraying her compatriots at the last moment, sings a line from a prayer - the guillotine falls for the final time, a harrowing silence, the mourning chorus comes in pianissimo vocalising, curtain falls. Absolute chills.
Absolutely right, it's one of my favourite operas too. I saw Mattila play Kostelnicka most recently at Covent Garden last autumn & the performance was still with me for days afterwards. In the intervals, my friends & I couldn't really look at each other or say anything it was just that overwhelming with emotional punch. Janacek's score is pure genius, definitely among the most powerful operas ever written. Love it!
Absolutely phenomenal performance from one of the great hoch dramatisch sopranos of the day. Alberta Masiello claimed that her voice was the size of three Nilssons but as bizarre as it may seem she NEVER sang at the Met. I believe she did sing at San Fransisco Opera. She was a regular at the Bayreuth Festival and Karajan chose her to be the Brunnhilde for a cycle that he conducted at the Salzburg Festival. There is a GRIPPING and dramatically intense video here on RUclips of Kniplova singing this exact scene taken from a live performance of the complete opera on stage, I'm wondering if you have had the chance to see it. She was TRULY just as you observed one of the great singing actresses of the day. I know that Jean Cox loved singing with her a lot
I saw this opera quite unprepared. I can't remember why I went to see but afterwards I was shattered. The scenery in Amsterdam was very abstract but in a way it drew more attention to the music. For me it is the most intense opera I have ever seen. Thanks David for reviving these memories.
Once again, you have one of the greatest channels in existence. I was unfamiliar with Jenufa!
Thank you for your prolific posts. Your insights and humor have helped me explore previously unfamiliar repertoire. Your channel is like having a trusted guide!
My pleasure!
It was my good luck to be living in Vienna in the late 60s. The first - and second - time I saw Jenufa, it starred Sena Jurinac and Nadezdha Kniplova. I was also in Munich in 1970 and to see Jenufa at the Bavarian State Opera with Astrid Varnay as the Kostelnicka. I've seen the opera many times since then. And I can tell you that no one has ever come close in the role than those to ladies.
I believe they were sensational. Your last sentence is unprovable.
I can never quite decide if Jenufa or The Cunning Little Vixen is my favorite Janacek opera. Utterly different but equally great.
It's absurd that the two came from the same mind. Same for Elektra and Rosenkavalier for Richard Strauss.
Wow … incredible. I LOVE playing his piano works, but this is on another level. Especially the solo violin at the end of that turmoil… striking!!
Thank you, David. From Provence, best regards.
Am a massive opera lover but not familiar with Jenufa! Thank you so much for all this wonderful information as background!!! 🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵😍 What a great soprano singing the part!
Interesting insight! I would nominate the same composer, just with another work, i.e. „The Makropulos Case“, the monologue of Emilia in the 3rd act - the whole work is for me one of the greatest operas ever written.
But the two moments, which make me tremble, are both in „Billy Budd“: Claggart‘s monologue about the lustful destroying of a life and then Billy‘s monologue before being hanged. In fact, the latter is one of the moments which make me weep every time, and sometimes I hate Britten for having composed an opera I like so much, but which is nearly unbearable for me.
I just discovered it recently! What an absolutely EPIC scene! I have been obsessed with it. I can’t stop watching Astrid Varnay singing it
I had the privilege of seeing Mattila in the title role at The Met in ‘08 and then again as Kostelnicka years later. Stunning work.
What’s interesting to me is that Laca never says he won’t take Steva’s baby - he asks her if she’s asking him to take Steva’s baby - and rather than ask that of Laca she tells him it’s dead. At least the English translation in the score I have says that. Also the original play was called Jeji Pastorkyna roughly translating to “Her Stepdaughter” - immediately shifting focus to the Kostelnicka
I saw Mattila in 2016 at the Met and since the (she shall be nameless) Jenufa was unsatifactory it was definitely Kosternicka's show. Late career Rysanek made a stunning thing of it and there's an amazing Olivero performance which, though in Italian, grabs you by the throat. Wish I'd seen those in person.
What a great opera..I was fortunate to see Rysanek perform the role.... One of the great scenes in all opera...
I was present at the performance released by BIS at Carnegie Hall. She got like a 15 minute ovation at the end.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Lol, the ovation was actually preserved on the BIS cd release.
A wonderful opera. I saw a fine performance in Malmö some years ago.
I saw this in Brno on my first visit to the Czech Republic in 2014. I saw 6 operas all in Czech and this was so disturbing to see and hear and it stayed with me for many days. I find it extremely hard to listen to as it is just to horrible to comprehend and it is so sad.
Attended the legendary performance with Rysanek and Benackova at Carnegie Hall in the late 80's with Eve Queller cond. Wonderful that the performance is recorded on BIS (avail here on youtube). What a night at the opera that was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have about 200 operas in my collection, but no Janacek. Thanks for this prompt to further expand my collection.
There are at least three brilliant operas by Janacek.
Blimey ! I very much this has ever been played on Classic FM (UK) !!!!!!!!!!
In the end, it is impossible to 'explain' why a musical phrase or sentence tugs at the heartstrings as much as many, many of them do, and it is particularly true of those sometimes tiny fragments that Janacek wrote again and again. In 'Jenufa'', which I once read - before I'd ever heard it - exerts a 'matchless emotional charge'(it does), it happens again and again. It is a wonderful, totally involving opera, but one which is very hard to watch, for all the best reasons.
To me, Janacek was just miles ahead of most opera composers, regardless of ethnic background.
When I saw my first Jenufa, I hadn't even heard of Janacek. It was at CG and Amy Schuard was Kostelnicka. In this performance, there were no act end curtain calls, but after the second act, the audience stayed clapping and cheering for ten minutes.
Subsequent Kostelnickas have included Kerstin Meyer, Pauline Tinsley, Patricia Johnson and Leonie Rysanek. No doubt would have seen more, but have lived in Kenya for 40 years and not gone back to Europe for 20. Had the Kniplova recording on vinyl, but nothing to play it on now. Did see her as Kabanika with Soderstrom in Geneva.
I thought you might have gone with Elektra as she searches forthe axe. On the other hand you choice here is my 2nd choice. This opera [Jenufa] for me has the greatest catharsis in all of opera, and i say that while adoring Wagner.
Definitely.
Besides the piano suites there is really another planet with Janacek .I've always heard about Janacek 's operas -That i've never seen . What made Janacek pick such a wonderful depiction of female life in the 19th or early 20th century . Where did he get this story . I can't wait to read about this ! An entire act in solo Soprano. Moses und Aaron isn't scary Elektra is A !
Yes, an amazing opera as are Janacek’s other ones. I’ve also seen it at the Met-maybe the same production you described with Mattila. Also saw the Makropoulos Affair there with Catherine Malfitano and Mackerras conducting. I wanted to see House of the Dead when they staged it, but couldn’t go and am still hoping they will revive it. Have seen Katya and the Vixen elsewhere. Now some company should the Excursions of Broucek. Fat chance, that!
This was a good video as usual Dave! But wondering if youl ever get to those wonderful oratorios by Mendelssohn, Elijah and st paul ?? And still waiting for your Rubbra video !
Paul G.
It will happen eventually.
For me the most intense Janaček scene: Kata Kabanova walking into the river in religious delusion....
Elisabeth Södrrström and Kniplova with Mackerras... unforgettable!
What is fascinating about this plot is that it is based on a true story. And Jenufa at the end of the opera (and apparently in the real life) somehow forgave her step mother, assuming she tried to do the best for her.
This singer is really amazing, but I find Leonie Rysanek (in the BIS recording) absolutely unbeatable (even if the conductor is worse than the great Jilek).
For a shattering performance of this scene see the great Astrid Varnay in Munich under Kubelik. It's on RUclips. Life changing.
She did crazy well, although her Kostelnicka does kind of look like her Clytemnestra, albeit less well-dressed.
It's an astonishing piece of singing acting, from one of the greatest of all singing actors. And what's great, for me, is how controlled she is form much of the scene, and how you see that the woman has a logical if horrific sense of purpose. It's part of a really wonderful performance conducted brilliantly by the great Rafael Kubelik and communicating directly with the Munich audience through a German translation.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Her Ortrud was another late-ish role that sends shivers up the spine, although I've seen no footage.
To me, the realism of Jenufa is on par with the realism of Dargomyzhsky's Rusalka or Merikanto's Juha (and the various verismo operas written around that time).
Indeed, powerful, moving music.
Haven't listened to the talk yet, but it's going to have a job displacing Poulenc's "Dialogues des Carmélites" as most harrowing. A big one, But I'm game!
Wouter van Doorn
That's up there too, but it's longer than 3 minutes (depending on where you start--you really need to begin with the march at the opening of the scene to get the full effect.
I had sort of the same emotion at the finale of Poulencs' Dialogue des Carmelites where the nuns are brought one by one to the guillotine.
Which is surprising because Poulenc was really not a great composer, certainly not at the same level as Janacek.
Well, you unseated Salome pretty neatly! (Rightfully, since we can't really take that seriously.)
Thank you. She's horrifying but not really emotional, I think. Petulant insanity, rather.
@@DavesClassicalGuide At an early rehearsal of Salome, Strauss is quoted to have said to the orchestra: “Gentlemen, there are no difficulties or problems. This is a scherzo with a fatal conclusion.” Fabulous!
How do you think Salome's final monologue would measure up to this?
You tell us.
Searing.
A "chilling" moment in opera for me, well two actually. is in "Bluebeard's Castle". The first when Judith opens the 6th door - the sea of tears - and the orchestral writing is "deathly" the other moment is when she opens the 7th door - the space between life and death meant for herself! Not bad for a relatively young composer!
And what about the 5th door? Judith opens the door, a bright light pierces her eyes revealing Bluebeard's kingdom - she sings a high C, above a C major chord blasted at full volume by the entire orchestra; never has a composer ever managed to make C major, the undisputed symbol of cheery neutrality, sound so terrifying and imposing! That is perhaps the single greatest C major chord ever written. And not to forget the PIPE ORGAN that follows immediately!
Given the brevity of Barton’s work, there are probably more chilling moments per minute
than anything else on the opera stage. The wedding of music and drama is so critical
here that it’s one the few times where I gravitate to a recording in English .......
Elder, Ormandy, and there may be others).
@@BestOperaMoments That 5th door always does it for me.
@@BestOperaMoments If you have a bass good enough to match the orchestra, otherwise it can be a bit of a anti-climax. It's one of those moments when, seen live, you notice people in the audience fidget with anticipation.
@@jshaers96 I'm currently listening to Jerome Hines' interpretation and he's surely one of the best Bluebeard's. Not many true basses can handle the bass-baritone tessitura required for the role, and when you have a weak, unconvincing voice like Fischer-Dieskau it could easily be anticlimactic. The exposed high C is not an easy job for a dramatic soprano / high mezzo Judith too.
Janacek was appointed organist at the Augustinian Abbey in Brno by the Abbot, one Gregor Mendel, the so-called father of the science of genetics. Abbott Mendel had a tame fox, which may have inspired 'The Cunning Little Vixen'. Janacek played the organ at Mendel's funeral in 1884.
This is the scene where Jenufa's foster mother decides to head Planned Parenthood.
@vrfvfdcdvgtre2369: Save your weak pathetic attempts at humor for s pickup bar where a soused woman (or man) will find it, and you, attractive.