Jenůfa takes place in a remote Moravian village in the last decades of the 19th century. Janáček’s focus on common people with real problems connects his work conceptually to what Puccini, Mascagni, and others were doing in the verismo operas of Italy at roughly the same time.
The score features one of opera’s most evocative uses of the orchestra. It is the sung music, however, that makes Jenůfa indelible. Because the vocal writing is so closely related to the Czech language, even audiences who don’t understand Czech can appreciate the acoustical resonance of the original setting. Among the notable vocal highlights are the Kostelnička’s Act II monologue, tracing her mental gyrations with both drama and subtlety, and Jenůfa’s final narrative, in which the music takes the audience through the transformative process of forgiveness as words alone never could.
After delivering one of the most stunning productions in recent Met memory with his 2025 take on Strauss’s Salome, director Claus Guth returns with a psychologically probing setting of Janáček’s haunting Jenůfa, extolled by The Telegraph at its London premiere as an “edgy, evocative staging that will surely become a classic.” Headlining the new staging is soprano Asmik Grigorian, whose dramatic intensity and powerhouse voice are perfectly suited to the demands of the title character, a young woman driven to despair by abandonment and betrayal. Legendary soprano Nina Stemme returns to the Met as the Kostelnička, Jenůfa’s stern stepmother, who commits an unspeakable act in a misguided attempt to save Jenůfa from ruin. Standout tenors Allan Clayton and Sean Panikkar also star as the impulsive Laca, who disfigures Jenůfa in a fit of jealousy, and his stepbrother Števa, who fathers her child before cruelly abandoning her. Maestro Tomáš Hanus makes his company debut on the podium.
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