Opera reviews: Jenufa and Roberto Devereux

Finland’s star soprano is famed for playing the title role of Jenufa, Leos Janacek’s tragedy about a young woman who becomes pregnant at a time when birth outside wedlock brought social stigma and even death. Now Mattila, at 55, has made her debut in the opera’s other leading role of the Kostelnicka, village sacristan and stepmother to Jenufa. 

While the character of Jenufa herself evokes sympathy it is much harder to find any for the Kostelnicka, who is regarded as one of opera’s evil-doers. Jenufa’s stepmother secretly drowns the baby in the belief that this will give her daughter the chance for a better life. Retribution comes when the body is discovered during the spring thaw.

Mattila has wanted to play the pivotal role for years, and admits being intrigued by the character’s complexity. Last week’s UK debut performance with an all-Czech cast and the Czech Philharmonic under principal conductor Jiri Belohlavek confirms that the soprano is already making the role her own. 

Rather than a hatchet-faced religious bigot, the sternness of her Kostelnicka is tempered by love and concern for the stepdaughter. Tortured by taking an action she knows to be a mortal sin, her cry as she sees “death looking through the window” is indeed chilling. 

Playing the role of Jenufa is young Czech soprano Adriana Kohutkova, whose sweet-voiced tone and vulnerable air contrasts with Mattila’s dramatic force.

Jaroslav Brezina as arrogant Steva, who rejects pregnant Jenufa, and Ales Briscein, as his jealous half-brother Laca, are both tenors with a fine heroic tone, despite the restraints of singing from the score. 

The effect when Mattila abandons score and takes to the stage in San Francisco Opera’s production in June, with Swedish star Malin Bystrom in the title role, should be sensational. 

Those who cannot get to San Francisco will even now be booking tickets for the Munich performance next year. Perhaps San Francisco Opera could record Jenufa for the screen?