Opera
Janacek, Leos
Almost everywhere Janáček’s fame began with Jenůfa, but this is paradoxical, for of all operas, Jenůfa is one of the most intensely local. To present so unfamiliar a work, I discovered in the 1970s from those most responsible for the Australian Opera’s first production, required teamwork, and much of that preparation drew on ethnology and ethnography...
Janáček enthusiast, author Max Brod, admired Kát’a Kabanová’s abundance of sheer musicality, and admitted that its emotional force and sheer technical finish surpassed everything Janáček had written…