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THE FOLK ROOTS OF LEOŠ JANÁČEK’S WORKS

Preview – OPERA EUROPA CONFERENCE

BROLN

The Brno Radio Orchestra of Folk Instruments (BROLN) was formed in 1952 with the aim of interpreting folk songs and folk instrumental music at a professional level, but in its classical form. Its set-up was based on traditional folk groups. The basis consisted of strings, cymbaloms and clarinets, to which were added as required characteristic folk instruments such as bagpipes, pipes and the Jew’s harp.

Iva Bittová

Iva Bittová was born in 1958 in Bruntál in northern Moravia in what was then Czechoslovakia – and nowadays the Czech Republic. Both of her parents were musicians. Her mother Ludmila was a pre-school teacher who spent most of her life with her family; her father Koloman Bitto – Bittová is the surname’s female form – was a musician strongly influenced by the land of his birth – southern Slovakia. His main instruments were string bass, cimbalom, guitar, and trumpet. This exceptional ability to play almost any instrument he laid his hands on, whether performing in classical or folk music styles, proved a major influence on his three daughters as they grew up. Both of Iva’s sisters – her older sister Ida and her younger sister Regina – are professional drama and music performers.

Iva attended drama pre-school, specializing in violin and ballet. In due course she gained admittance to the Music Conservatory in Brno, often called the Czech Republic’s second city. She graduated in drama and music. During her studies, Iva took part-time engagements as an actress and musician in Brno’s Divadlo Husa na provázku (Goose On A String Theater). She cites these engagements as some of the most formative and influential of her life.

Around this time she also featured as an actress in radio, TV and movie productions. Later on, while working full time in theater, she re-kindled her interest in playing violin, an instrument she had set aside in her younger years. After her father’s early death, she decided to follow in his professional footsteps as an instrumentalist and by composing her own music.

In 1982, Iva started studying with Professor Rudolf Šťastný, the primarius (first violin) of the Moravian String Quartet. In the intervening years the violin has become her life’s passion and the most inspiring musical instrument in her professional life. Iva firmly believes that, as playing the violin places extreme demands on musicians, the composer’s work depends utterly on commitment and diligence.

After living in the countryside near Brno for 17 years, Iva decided to relocate her personal and professional life to the United States. In the Summer of 2007, she settled amid the splendors of nature in upstate New York. Iva shares her Hudson Valley home with her younger son Antonín (born 1991) – also a dedicated musician and another chip off the Bitto block.

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Conductor: Robert Jindra Stage director: SKUTR (Martin Kukučka and  Lukáš  Trpišovský) Set design: JAKUB KOPECKÝ Costume design: SIMONA RYBÁKOVÁ Choreography: JAN KODET Choirmaster: JURIJ GALATENKO Dramaturgy: DANIEL JÄGER CAST: Matěj Brouček, a landlord: Arnold Bezuyen / Jorge Garza Mazal, a painter, Azurean, Pete: Tomáš Kořínek / Adam Zdunikowski Sacristan, Lunigrove, Domšík from the Bell: Martin Gurbal’ / František Zahradníček Málinka, his daughter, lunar goddess, Kunka: Agnieszka Bochenek-Osiecka / Jana Sibera Würfl, a bartender, Wonderglitter, councillor: Alexandr Beň / Peter Mazalán Young waiter at bar, Child prodigy, Student: Marianna Pillárová / Martina Šnytová Housekeeper / Kedruta:  Yvona Škvárová / Erika Šporerová Composer, Harper, Miroslav, the goldsmith:  Martin Šrejma / Michal Pavel Vojta Poet, Cloudy, Vacek the Bearded: Jiří Brückler / Aleš Jenis Painter, voice / Duhoslav / Vojta: Josef Moravec / Václav Morys Pegasus / Ghost: Jindřich Panský Soldier from Tabor I.: Jaroslav Kosec / Václav Živný Soldier from Tabor II.: Pavel Ďuríček / Petr Němec Svatopluk Čech:  Ivan Kusnjer / Svatopluk Sem

National Moravian-Silesian Theatre Opera Choir and Orchestra – Concert Master Vladimír Liberda, members of ballet NDM a quests National Moravian-Silesian Theatre

Despite the fact that the opera bilogy The Excursions of Mr Brouček is Janáček’s largest-scale operatic work, it has, regrettably, not received much interest from opera houses. And this is unquestionably unfair. The composer decided to work on Čech’s satirical prose The True Excursion of Mr Brouček to the Moon in 1908, a year after the writer’s death. However, he was unlucky with his librettists, who were either unable or unwilling to adequately reshape the material into a libretto as Janáček had envisaged it. Not surprisingly, over the nine interminable years when he worked on the opera, a whole host of literary figures participated in the preparation of the libretto, abandoning the project sooner or later.  Among them were well-known names such as Zikmund Janke, F. S. Procházka, Viktor Dyk, Jiří Mahen and even Max Brod. Janáček finally finished writing the work in 1917, but after preparing the piano score he realised that the opera was too short. The political situation as well as the social climate led him to start work on another instalment of Čech’s “Broučekiad”: The Excursion of Mr Brouček, This Time to the 15th Century. This time the work proceeded quickly and the second part was ready after only nine months. Janáček then made corrections to the first part of the bilogy and linked it to the second. The Excursions of Mr Brouček was the only one of Janáček’s operas to have its premiere at the National Theatre in Prague. The musical performance was conducted by its new head, Otakar Ostrčil, with Gustav Schmoranz directing. However, it received a lukewarm reception, perhaps in part because the stage depiction of the subject left something to be desired. The opera is very unusual though, particularly in terms of its music. Here Janáček experimented both with the musical structure and with the instrumentation. The score features a glass armonica, bagpipes and an organ, as well as Janáček’s favourite viola d´amore.

jenufa_zagreb

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Although Jenůfa represents the very beginning of the composer’s journey towards a modern and distinctive form of musical drama, it is his most frequently performed opera (a similar situation to that of Benjamin Britten and his early opera Peter Grimes). Work on Jenůfa placed great demands on Janáček. He found the subject matter for his opera in a play by the young writer Gabriela Preissová which was controversial in its day. The story of the tragic fate of a young woman which is brought about by the prejudices of the time was evidently in keeping with Janáček’s social conscience. In choosing Preissová’s play, however, he also chose a work of prose, which he was the very first composer to employ in an opera. Work on the composition took him a full nine years, starting in 1894. However, it was frequently interrupted because of his enormous workload at the schools where he taught. He completed the opera as his beloved daughter Olga was dying, at the beginning of 1903. The uncertainty associated with the new approach to composition, this tragic event in his personal life and the subsequent rejection of the opera by the Prague National Theatre placed a huge psychological strain on the composer. In the end the premiere was taken on by Brno and its Czech National Theatre. It took place in a now-defunct theatre building on Veveří Street on January 21 1904 under the baton of C. M. Hrazdira. Although, in view of the limitations of its time, the staging was rather rudimentary, it enjoyed great success. Janáček then went on to rework the opera into its present form in 1906 and 1907. After the Prague (1916) and then Viennese premiere (1918) the work was taken up across the world and it remains one of the most frequently performed operas of the 20th century.