LEOSJANACEK T Or' J enura Opera in Three Acts Libretto by the Composer after the play Her Step-daughterby Gabriela Preissovd EVE QUELER, conductor THE CAST In order of ucal appearancc , o, JenuJa, slep-daughterof Kostelniika Gabriela Beiadkovd Grandmother Buryja Barbara Schramm Laca Klemei Wieslaw Ochman Jano, a shepherdDo7 Katherine Johnson Stdrek (the Foreman) Kenneth Shaw Kostelniika Leonie Rysanek Steaa Burlja Peter Kazaras Barena Ariel Rubstein Pastuchyia (Old Shephudus) Maro Partamian Ma2or Frank Barr Mayor's Wrfe Nlkki Li Hartliep Karolka, the malor's daughter Kathryn Cowdrick Kostelniika's Aunt Maro Partamian Musicians, Villagers, Recruits SCHOLA CANTORUM OF NEW YORK Hugh Ross, Director BIS-CD-449/450STEREO tittr)tt Total plavinqtime: 146'53.'fotalmusic time : 123'33 CD-449:Total time: 76'56 CD-450: Total time: 69'57 ACT ONE 42'28 ACT TWO (conclusion) (Musictime: 39'39) E Scenc,VI (conclusion) 4'10 f Applause 0'56 (SceneVI: 9'12) ESceneI 11'50 E SceneVII 6' 15 [] SceneII 5'07 I Scene VIII 6'19 E SceneIII 0'36 f Applause 6'39 E SceneIV 1'49 E SceneV 9'49 ACT THREE 46',30 E SceneVI 6'03 (Music time: 33'23) E SceneVII 4'26 Applause 0'53 I '2',52 I Applause 1'53 E SceneI E SceneII 4',23 ACT TWO (opening) 57',49 E Scene III 3',+1 (Music time: 50'31) E Scene IV 2's1 Applause 0'39 SceneV 0'18 @ E '48 I Overture 1',16 f Sccne VI 3 E Scene I 7',+2 E SceneVII 0'34 E SceneII 2',02 I SceneVIII 0',19 E SceneIII 9'39 E SceneIX 0"16 E Scene IV 3',34 E SceneX +'24 E Scene V +'31 E SceneXI + +:) E SceneVI (opening, D SceneXII +'t'2 to Fig. 85) 5'02 @ Applause l2'13 3 LEoSJANAdEK T On J enura Opera in Three Acts Libretto by the Composer after the play Her Step-daughturby Gabriela Preissovd CONTENTS Cast List 2 CD Tracks and Timings 3 Buryja Family Tree 5 Michael Ewans: "The Drama and the Music" 6 Yveta Synek Graff/Robert T. Jones: Synopsis of the Action 24 Pronunciation Guide 2B Artists' Biographies 29 Yveta Synek Graff: Translator's Note 42 Libretto (in English translation by Yveta Synek Graff & Robert T. Jones, Copyright 1984) 43 (Act I - 43; Act II - 61;Act III - 78) Photographs Gabriela Befiadkov6; Leonie Rysanek Box front Eve Queler Box back Wieslaw Ochman 36 Peter Kazaras 37 Barbara Schramm, Kenneth Shaw 3B Kathryn Cowdrick, Maro Partamian, Ariel Rubstein 39 Katherine.fohnson, Nikki Li Frank Barr 10 'Jenifa"Hartliep, Carnegie Hall poster for +1 Gabriela Beiadkovii; Leonie Rysanek; Eve Queler 100 4 FAMILY TREE Grandmother Buryja had two sons (both deceased) I Buryja Tom65 Buryia the older son, a miller the youneer, a spendthrift I married to widow first wile Klemeri unnamed who had a son, Laca I I I 5t.r.t Buryja - hari:brothers_ Laca Klemei Jenfifa second wife KostelniEka Steva is Grandmother's real grandson. Laca is Grandmother's step-grandson. _ Kostelniika is Grandmother's daughter-in-law. Jenifa is Kostelnidka's step-daughter and Grandmother's real granddaughter. Preoared bv Yveta Svnek Crafi' THE DRAMA AND THE MUSIC ACT ONE The rnountains ol'eastern Moravia are moderate in height; though the upper regions are rugged, the valleys have none ofthe enclosed, conlined feeling of thc Alps. Only the remoteness of the upper villages, the endless conifers ol the desccnt to the lower regions, oppress. And - at the end o1' the nineteenth century - the strict religrous rnorality subscribed to by the inhabitants. Act I of Preissov:i's play Her Foster-Daughtzris set in the yard of a village's water-mill, source of wealth ancl thereiore ol'social status to the fecklessyoung hcdonist, Steva Buryja, who has inherited its ownership. Ste,ruhad seducedJenfifa, who works at the milll and the stase seems set fbr a confrontation between him and fenita's lbstcr-rnothei, a tormidable lady known throughout the play and opcra not by her name but by her title - Kostelnidka,sextoness, and high in the hierarchy of'the villaee's respect.Preissovii makes the miller speak cloquently, early in the Act, of Kostelnidka's own maltreatment, as a voung wonran, at the hands o1'her husband, Steva's uncle; and some interpretershave^ gone so far as to see the play in terms of class:Steva's seductionol'Jenita has been read as a poliritalcritique. of the bourgeois "gentleman's morality" of those who rely on their inherited wealth to abuse those who must work to live. Thc inclicationson which this interpretation was built are minimal. The authoress "wrote what she saw and lelt" and considered politics to be outside the sphere of drama. The opera goeseven lurther. Not only does it ignore the storv's potential as a vehicle for analysis of class conflict, it :rvoicls thc clramatic possibilities of the struggle between religion and arnoralitv. 6 Janz{iekremoves Kostelnidka lrorn the centre lor thc lirst half'o1'Ac.tI. asks us to take her moral strength. her role as guardian of'thc villaet's strict moralitv, for sranted. And so the lbcus ol'the storv shifts to lhe' young woman who by this becomesits heroine. The Western title is - firr - the opera appropriate: Jeni-fa. The sh^iftin emphasis is intellectuallvneat. Both play and opera cncl with Jenrifa and Laca transcendins the morality ol thc villagc as thev achieve one after the other a depth ol' rnaturity in which unforecttable personal injury can, if the reasonsn'hich compelled the asent are {ully ancl lovingly understood, be forgiven. The opera takes place in a ciosed community. These two peopleare alone in escapingthe grip ol'its vzrlues: and they do so only after their characters have der.eloped in thc courst: ol' arduous suffcring. It is thcreforc appropriate that the action shouk.linvrtc - and sustain - attention to tht:m. from its outset. As the curtain rises,.JenrSfastands alone. apart fronr the others, shading her eyes against the setting sun and looking into the distance, i,vaitirrs. Today Steva is belbre the recruitins board. II'he is not clralied,she trusts she will persuade him to marrv her. If he is taken, her condition u,,illsoon be evident to all; and the village'sjudgement on the unmarried mother rs pitiless, the solutions of our larqer. secular societiesbcvond reach; the disgraccwill drivc Jenila to suicidc. So stated, the predicament is moving - but not tragic. Even the confrontation between Jenifa and the village, fbreshadoweclhele but ultiniately evaded, would produce no inner tension, no paradienr o1'a tragic act, chosen yet inevitable. .Jan:idek slpplies another ll'arnc*'ork, larger than that of village moralitv. Ibr.|enila's pledicament: ancl as a result the opera's openine scenebecornes universal in irnport. tliirrsccntls the local limitations of the plav. F)arly in the Act JenSfa, complimented by her Grandmother for her rozum - a complex word embracing both intellectual understanding and common-sensepracticalitv - replies,with a sigh: Alas, dearGrandmother, that eoodsense oJ mine long sinceflowed aual somewherem the milktream! Janz{deklashions this moment, orchestrally, into one of the most intense penetrationsol'a character's mood in Act I. And with reason. For the opera seizeslrom the outs^eton this image of the millstream, and uses it to make tragic sense of Jen3fa's predicament. Je.t8fu'. pregnancy appears not as transgression (as she herself sees it now) but as the natural consequenceof the desire of an adolescent girl: her shame and anxiety in Act I become, in hindsight (to which Janitek will soon assistus), merely guilt, imposed as one of the village's strongest fetters; the force which will sweep it away becomes a torrent of love and violence, through which she will mature immeasurably. Act I lacks any other structural device; no other music but the insistent xylophone recurs so pointedly from scene to scene. So the implacable flow of nature is the onlv focus in which the music sets the action. Nature includes human nature: in the moment of self realization cited above. the text implicitlv links Jenfifr's "lapse" to the natural flow. But beside this certainty - and that of the growine life in her womb - the heroine is as the opera opens isnorant ofother, equally natural developing events: that Steva has no lasting love lbr her; and that Laca loves her nearly to despcration..Jenita's hope of having retained Steva'slove is unmasked as a iragilc, self-protecting delusion; at the same time as this is revealed, so too is the increaseol'Laca's love and iealousv. 8 With Laca's intervention the action proper beeins; but.Jenila decides to ignore his taunt, and turns awav to apoloeizc to her Grantlrnothcr firr not working: I 'hall nake upJor all oJ it. I just rememberedabout m) losemar,y, that it's fading, I zaentto uater it in the stream. And tf it should wither look, Grandmother, thel sa1 that all the luck in the world uould go.l Janiidekresponds to the adolescentsuperstition ol the text, clothing all this in precioustextures, repetitive and fragilel the music becomeslanguid ancl even the vigorous movement with whichJenifa turns a\t'av{'ront Laca al the start is seen, musically, as introversion, a movemcnt into a cocoon ol self-indulgent despair. Jandlei now contrives a fuli revelation of .Jenfila's"underlvrng emotions,both to show that her plight is to develop into somethins worthv of seriousattention, and to foreshadowand explain in retrospectthe depth of character to which she gron's in the remainder of the opera. And the text provides a fine opportuniy.