Didn't know this opera well, or like it, until recently. Somehow got the idea that it was "light" - because the story is not as harrowing as "Jenufa" or Kat'a Kabanova. I was wrong. The music is just as strange and beautiful as anything else Janacek wrote. Go on: if you think it's normal music, listen to it and try to notate it! In even this reduced suite I get reminders of Taras Bulba, Jenufa, the Sinfonietta. But see the opera, rather than listen to the suite: it's amazing. Very good, though, to hear it well played with full sections - in most opera pits there isn't room for this many musicians!
Actually this opera is not "light". This masterpiece confronts the sadness of imperfect human life with the beauty and harmony of nature. The suite is a good motivation to invest the 100 min it takes to watch the complete oeuvre!
This is some of Janacek's most hauntingly beautiful music...
Didn't know this opera well, or like it, until recently. Somehow got the idea that it was "light" - because the story is not as harrowing as "Jenufa" or Kat'a Kabanova. I was wrong. The music is just as strange and beautiful as anything else Janacek wrote. Go on: if you think it's normal music, listen to it and try to notate it! In even this reduced suite I get reminders of Taras Bulba, Jenufa, the Sinfonietta. But see the opera, rather than listen to the suite: it's amazing.
Very good, though, to hear it well played with full sections - in most opera pits there isn't room for this many musicians!
Actually this opera is not "light". This masterpiece confronts the sadness of imperfect human life with the beauty and harmony of nature. The suite is a good motivation to invest the 100 min it takes to watch the complete oeuvre!
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