Search - Leos Janacek, Eva Randova, Anja Silja :: Jenufa: Complete Opera

After a long wait, disappointment.

Jim Lieberthal | Minneapolis, mn United States | 02/09/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"It has been a very long time, since a major label has taken the time and money to create a new version of this terrific piece of musical drama. Since the Decca studio version of 1983, all new releases have been live (to preserve the greatness of several artists in various roles), or re-releases of previous studio versions brought about by a lively interest in Janacek and his stage works.This was a long wait, personally, and we have here a very long rendition of the piece. Timings are much longer than any other renditions of the opera, and it is NOT because of additional music being recorded for the first time. It is due to the reticence of the conductor, Bernard Haitink, to come to grips with the essential nature of the ostinatos rhythms underlying the score. He does not press forward in momentum, as other conductors do, and which I prefer.
If you are fine with hearing every single note and every phrase articulated with precision, this is for you. I do not believe that it adds drama,or a knowing coherency of the work's architecture: it impedes the larger flow of theatrical moments and tension. To be this removed is the choice of the conductor. I have heard a FIDELIO conducted by Haitink that simply blew the audience out of the theatre with dramatic thrust and tension, so I know he is capable of this sort of passion. None of that applies here. The Royal Opera orchestra is wonderful, very clean in their detailed work. The recorded image is good though I'd like more immediacy of the orchestral "voice".Karitta Mattila has a wonderful upper register. The middle of the voice is problematic - it looses focus and is underpowered. Frequently, I mistake her voice for others when not looking at the libretto.
I even confuse her voice with Anja Silja's at moments. In singing the part of Kostelnicka, Silja's voice is deteriorated beyond the ability to sing this role. She has resources as a vocal actress, yet so much of it is just plain unpleasant, and because we are not being able to see her physical protrayal, means the impact of the role is lessened to a significant degree. I don't feel she dominates the drama as she should. Also in the cast is Eva Randova, who was the wonderful and dramatic Kostelnicka from the Decca recording of 1983 under Charles Mackerras (now there is a conductor who, though slow in tempi also, understood where the arcs of the drama were pointed and what to underscore). Eva Randova, as Grandma Buryja, the head of the family clan, has also deteriorated in her vocal condition, to the point she is barely able to articulate the notes in the phrases. This is unfortunate, because I have a lot of respect for her wonderful recordings of JENUFA and CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN for Mackerras' Decca series. When both Kostelnicka and Grandma Buryja are singing in the same scene, it is very difficult to tell them apart as vocal/dramatic personalities. What a shame. Once again, this takes down the theatrical temperature to a very tepid affair. The tenor,Jorma Silvestri, would have been most welcome and even wonderful as the braggart and weak Steva. Here he is cast in the heavier role of Laca, which sounds a little past his means, as Mattila does in her's. By the third act, though he continues to sing with attractive tone and security, his impact is also weakened. Jerry Hadley who does sing the part of Steva, shares with Eva Randova, the obstacle of working with the remains of a voice. He is not singing. It comes across as shouting on pitch with a desperate attempt to hold on to the repeated notes when the character is attempting to be manipulative through a certain degree of sensuality. Here he has no ability to finesse the vocal line or project a character. It was a struggle to listen to this section, which has strong folkloric elements that are very engaging, and with some of the most beautiful legato music in the opera. All was lost here, once the fun of a decent tempo for the choral introduction and dance in this scene were past. The buildup of tension at the end of Act 1, when Jenufa's cheek is slashed by Laca out of jealousy, is also missed. Completely. One hardly knows the act is over, execept for the applause (of an apparently appreciative audience). Act 2 lumps along and the duet of Kostelnicka and Jenufa is too slow to be moving. The decision to kill the baby is without climax. Act 3 actually finds a rhythm that works, though once again slow, and the end though well sung, (Mattila sounds wonderful in this part of the opera) is without significant support from Haitink and so lacks fulfillment. This could have been a wonderful new addition, but I do not recommend it to anyone. I bought it because I LOVE this work, and am willing to listen to all who choose to embody it."

Karita Mattila - born to the role

Gavin Plumley | Stone, Bucks, UK | 02/23/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The new Erato (Warner Classics) recording of Jenufa taken from live performances is released this month, after originally being announced for November 2002. There are always problems in transferring live performances onto record, luckily for these superlative performances of Jenufa from Covent Garden last autumn it was only Olivier Tambosi's production that was not a focal point. The highlights of this new set are many, not least Anja Silja's return to the role of the Kostelnicka, Karita Mattila's first appearance in the title-role in Britain, and the outstanding Laca of Jorma Silvasti. It was surprising that Bernard Haitink chose this work out of all the opera repertory he has sought to make his own to conduct in his final season at Covent Garden. His other choice, Tristan und Isolde, was a more obvious choice (something he walked towards throughout his Covent Garden career) and which was very much 'his'. He does not have the command of some of his counterparts, yet these performances are fine enough. Those used to the pace of the Mackerras release on Decca, or the more rugged interpretations on Supraphon will find Haitink's more romantic measure of this version sometimes at odds with the drama (as with Vladimir Jurovski at the Met performances recently). It is beautifully played by the Covent Garden orchestra, but, as with the Vienna Philharmonic under Mackerras, perhaps too beautifully. The stamping of the live performance will be found distracting by some keen on the purity of the studio situation, but I felt it was almost a blessing at times, and makes the conscripts scene in Act One full of enthusiasm. Haitink does invest much in the specifics of the score, rather than merely revelling in the powerful pace of Janacek's drama, and this is no bad thing. Orchestral solos and the more transparent textures of the Brno 1908 version of the score used on this recording (edited by Mackerras and John Tyrrell) benefit greatly from Haitink's attention to detail. The two lead women are outstanding. Anja Silja may be a little too old for the opera in the theatre, but her voice and presence here on disc surely make her the Kostelnicka of recent times. Her tirades as the Kostelnièka are among the most frightening I have heard, and she is perhaps even more perspicacious than Eva Randová under Mackerras. Randová, incidentally, appears on the present record as the Grandmother, a touching point of casting and a reminder of the old Decca recording guard. Karita Mattila excels in the title-role. The prayer in Act Two (as on her 'Scenes and Arias' release) is intense yet lyrical and her scenes with Laca and ?teva are well drawn. At these more introverted moments the beauty of the orchestra's playing is most welcome.Although not the main selling point of this new release, Jorma Silvasti is a strident Laca, a tenor with much to give in this repertoire (more recently Laca under Ozawa in Vienna). His moments of reflection with Jenufa, as well as his performance in Act Three, are charming, and his more vitriolic jealous turns are stronger than previous more wimpish interpretations have had us believe. Jerry Hadley as ?teva, on the other hand, is not quite the equal of the other principals. His drunkenness in Act One is perhaps a little too vulgar and his voice does show strain in his forgiveness scene with Mattila (Disc 1, Track 7, 5:20) giving little indication of his previous achievements, both on disc (particular in Weill's Street Scene and The Rake's Progress) and in the theatre. I cannot imagine that when he sang Laca at Salzburg it was comparable to Jorma Silvasti's here. The rest of the cast is uniformly sound (particular note going to Jonathan Veira's foreman), and, as ever, the Royal Opera Chorus excels. Some moments in the sound come across as slightly distant because of the relation between pit and stage, but generally it is good, with the orchestra detail (as mentioned above) being particularly lucid. The booklet is beautifully presented, with many photos of the Covent Garden cast. After the detail of John Tyrrell's notes in the Mackerras Decca recording, the single essay in Erato's booklet is a slight disappointment. Some not knowing the production live will find the photos of Frank Philipp Schlössmann's set full of boulders bizarre, but I promise the same was true in the theatre. The recording is, all in all, a great new release (if lacking some of the fire of the Mackerras) and a welcome reminder of this generally fine cast, now thankfully devoid of the asinine production. A delightful addition to the Janacek discography..."

My favorite recording of Jenufa

The Cultural Observer | 01/27/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Why people would even give this less than four stars is a mystery to me, as the team making up this recording has lavished this with perhaps one of the most powerful accounts of the opera ever heard on disc. Jen?fa has perhaps had more idiomatic singers and conductors in the studio, such as the Supraphon with Benackova and Kniplova, but this is the most satisfying account in record, at least according to my ears. I've never hears a more vulnerable, proud, courageous, and headstrong Jen?fa than Karita Mattila. The way she uses the colors of her voice to create a very vivid characterization of the Moravian peasant girl is most impressive. I have never heard a better Jen?fa. She is partnered by the Kostelnicka of Anja Silja, who perhaps gives the most vivid portrayal of this tormented, morally and psychologically degraded character in all the recordings I've heard. True, the voice may not be what it once was. Silja was a vocal wonder who at 19 sang the Queen of the Night, Brünnhilde at 24, and Elektra at 25. At her tender age, she sang the most difficult roles of the German repertoire, eventually turning to the more modern repertoire when her lover Wieland died. She was then the most impressive interpreter of Berg and Schönberg that I've ever heard, and her Janacek is perhaps one of the best ever recorded. Her performances of Emilia Marty, the Kostelnicka, and the Kabanicha are without a doubt dramatic references of these difficult character parts. I don't think there is a singer who has fully captured the Kostelnicka's character as much as Silja does, and with her portrayal of the part, makes the woman a more central character in the plot than in most productions, which is the way it should be anyways. The character is indeed more significant, and if one were to look at Czech country life, this is the interpretation which fully captures the character of a true village mother. Laca is taken by Jorma Silvasti, the best I've ever heard on records. Eva Randova, a former Kostelnicka on Mackerras' recording, is no slouch in the character of the Starenka. Only Jerry Hadley is less than graceful as Steva, although he is quite competent musically. Bernard Haitink leads the London forces with lyrical passion and a modern hand, expressing the score's myriad of colors as effectively as Mackerras does. I think this should be a reference recording for Jen?fa, and if some listeners don't like it because of Anja Silja, then one should ask why they listen to singers like Maria Callas, Leonie Rysanek, Gwyneth Jones, and Astrid Varnay, singers who, while imperfect, give some of the truest and strongest characterizations on disc."