Jenufa Tickets

Jakub Hruša conducts Claus Guth’s Olivier award-winning production of Janáček’s Jenůfa. A gripping opera of shame, betrayal and redemption.

Background
Corinne Winters (Jenůfa) and Karita Mattila (the Kostelnička) lead in Janáček’s evocative opera with a score that is infused with traditional folk melodies of the composer’s native Moravia. Music Director Designate Jakub Hruša conducts Claus Guth’s staging which is an ‘edgy, evocative’ (Telegraph) take on this poignant domestic drama.

The music of Jenůfa
Janáček’s folk-inspired music movingly captures Jenůfa’s progression from hope to despair to eventual radiant happiness, while her stepmother, the Kostelnička, is one of opera’s most complex maternal figures. Writer Nigel Simeone describes the unique structure of Janáček's stirring music as such: ‘Every character has his or her own musical language, and Janáček sets down a pattern that will serve him for all of his mature operas. A theme, often as short as four notes, dominates each scene [of the opera] but then gives way to another, equally memorable'.

What is a Kostelnička?
Jenůfa's stepmother is referred throughout Janáček’s opera as ‘the Kostelnička’, a title given to a village church-warden or elder. Initially presenting as a strong matriarch who is fiercely protective of Jenůfa, the Kostelnička has one of the more dramatic – and dark – character transformations across opera. As Jenůfa's future is turned increasingly precarious by her illegitimate child, the Kostelnička’s maternal instinct morphs into obsessive determination... In a small, stifling community, how far must a mother go to protect her child?