We take a look at what is being said about Claus Guth’s production, which continues to perform until the 1st February.
Broadway World: **** “Expectations are running particularly high for conductor Jakub Hrůša. He does not disappoint playfully drawing out the earthy vivacity of the score’s folk inspiration but deftly undercutting it with punchy dramatic efficiency. The real emotion sparks from the score’s rich tonality – Janacek torments us, offering fleeting glimpses of summer light during Jenůfa and Laca’s wedding, only to swallow it in the icy wind of the narrative’s nasty conclusion. You get the sense that Hrůša is holding back from exploring the grimy depth with full force.”
The Guardian: **** “Vocally, the evening belongs above all to the two central female characters. Corinne Winters is utterly convincing as the vulnerable but indomitable Jenůfa. She inhabits the role with rare physical and musical credibility and her compassionate intervention in act three is exceptionally moving. Karita Mattila’s Kostelnička is even better than when she took the role here three years ago. Her unerringly stern but fearful stage presence is now enhanced by the return of more body in the voice.”
The Arts Desk: **** “Knife-edge conducting and singing, but non-realistic production is weaker in revival.”
The Standard: **** “Guth’s symbolic, psychologically probing production seems more potent than ever with Hrusa at the helm. The musical directorship of the Royal Opera is, on this showing, in safe hands.”
Bachtrack: ***** “Such breathtaking magnanimity is what Janáček asks us to believe of Jenůfa. It’s what makes this story worth retelling as long as life fails and fails again to imitate the expected narrative arc. Life will always demand more of us than we can fully understand: only art can help us to imagine its complexity.”
The Telegraph: **** “Newcomer Corinne Winters fronts this powerful telling of a richly dark story, a show that augurs well for the future of the Royal Opera.”
London Unattached: *** ” American Soprano Corrine Winters played the title role. Winters looks ideal for the role and sang Jenůfa with a wounded delicacy most keenly felt in her stunning performance of the prayer song in Act II. According to his housekeeper, Janáček wrote the prayer song at the same time as discovering is daughter was relapsing into typhoid fever. His sorrow could be felt even 120 years later.”
Music OMH: ***** “Jakub Hrůša conducts a sublime performance of Janáček’s masterpiece with a superb cast. Opera doesn’t get much better than this.”
The Stage: *** ” Exceptional performances from cast and conductor are compromised by an unhelpful staging.”
Opera Wire: “Where the composer’s overwrought libretto hammered home its heavy-handed plot, a slick ensemble whispered secrets – baring Janáček’s true gifts.”
The i Paper: ***** “Many of us remember the fine Jenufa which the great Finnish soprano Karita Mattila made 20 years ago; now she has gracefully aged-up to make a profoundly moving Kostelnicka. Meanwhile, the title role is taken by the American soprano Corinne Winters, in a heroic performance shot through with indelible pathos.”
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