Arthaus presents a staging of Jenůfa sung in the original Czech language. The production was directed by French- Austrian opera director Olivier Tambosi. For JanáÄek, opera was a vehicle for describing reality, and he pushed this idea to the point of fashioning a new theory about verismo. Its basis was that the two major strands, music and drama, were to be linked indivisibly in his operas. Olivier Tambosi takes up the challenge in a Jenůfa that is realistic, clear and direct in its exposition of the characters’ feelings. Yet he is also concerned to make key motifs in the work visible through symbolic elements on stage. The director’s haunting dramaturgy is admirably brought to life by a cast of outstanding singer-actors. The result is a Jenůfa of immediately accessible emotions, with altogether physical characterization, explicit and more brutal than other stagings of the opera.
