Jenůfa Tickets

Opera Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium

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Important Info

Type: Opera

City: Antwerp, Belgium

Duration: 2h 30min with 1 interval

Intervals: 1

Sung in: Czech

Titles in: Dutch,English

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Cast

Performers

Choose the date to see the peformers

Overview

Robert Carsen's purified take on Leoš Janáček's opera takes you on a gripping journey along the all-too-human.

With Jenůfa, Leoš Janáček broke through as a music theatre composer once and for all. His third opera is set in the countryside, in a tight-knit community with stifling social control. Jenůfa becomes pregnant from Števa. He promises to marry her but breaks his word. At the highest possible price, Jenůfa’s stepmother, the respected sexton in the village, tries to save the girl’s honour. For his composition, Janáček was guided by the natural rhythm of the Czech language and thus came to an innovative operatic style through which Moravian folk music also meanders.

In what has become one of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen’s most successful creations, director Robert Carsen drills down to the core of this poignant psychodrama full of unrequited feelings, envy and good intentions. After a twentyyear journey through the greatest international opera stages – from Spain to Luxembourg, Germany, France and even Japan – our Jenůfa comes home.

History

Premiere of this production: 21 January 1904, National Theatre, Brno

Jenůfa ("Her Stepdaughter" in Czech) is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the play Její pastorkyňa by Gabriela Preissová. It was first performed at the National Theatre, Brno on 21 January 1904. Composed between 1896 and 1902, it is among the first operas written in prose.

Synopsis

Place: A Moravian village
Time: the nineteenth century

The plot depends on a tangled set of village relationships. Before the opera begins, the mill-owner Grandmother Buryja's two sons have both married twice, fathered children, and died. Their wives have also died, except for the Kostelnička (widow of the churchwarden), the younger son's second wife and Jenůfa's stepmother. Custom dictates that only Števa, the elder son's child by his first marriage, will inherit the mill, leaving his half-brother Laca and cousin Jenůfa to earn their livings.

Act 1

Jenůfa, Laca, and Grandmother Buryja wait for Števa to return home. Jenůfa, in love with Števa and secretly pregnant with his child, worries that he may have been drafted into the army. Laca, in love with Jenůfa, expresses bitterness against his half-brother's favored position at home. As he complains he plays with a knife and, finding it blunt, gives it to the mill foreman to be sharpened.

The foreman informs the family that Števa has not been drafted, to Jenůfa's relief and Laca's increased frustration. The others leave, and Jenůfa waits to greet Števa. He appears with a group of soldiers, drunk and boasting of his prowess with the girls. He calls for music and drags the miserable Jenůfa into dancing with him.

Then Kostelnička steps into this rowdy scene, silences the musicians and, shocked by Števa's behavior, forbids him to marry Jenůfa until he can stay sober for one full year. The soldiers and the family leave Števa and Jenůfa alone, and she begs him to love her, but he, unaware of her pregnancy, gives her casual answers and leaves.

Laca returns, as bitter as ever. He attempts to goad Jenůfa into criticizing Števa, but she takes her lover's side despite everything. Laca rages that Števa would never even look at her if it weren't for her rosy cheeks, then slashes her across the cheek with his knife.

Act 2

Months later, it is winter. The baby has been born, but Števa has not yet come to visit his child. Jenůfa's face is still disfigured, but she is happy in her love for the baby. While Jenůfa sleeps, the Kostelnička summons Števa and demands that he take responsibility. He answers that while he will provide money in secret, no one must know the baby is his. His love for Jenůfa died when Laca spoiled her beauty, and he is now engaged to marry Karolka, the mayor's pretty daughter.

Števa leaves, and Laca enters. He still doesn't know the truth about the baby, and when the Kostelnička tells him, his first reaction is disgust at the thought of taking Števa's child under his wing. Fearful that Jenůfa will be left with no one to marry, Kostelnička hastily lies that the baby is dead. Laca leaves, and the Kostelnička is faced with the necessity of making the lie true. She wraps the baby in a shawl and leaves the house.

Jenůfa wakes up and says a prayer for her child's future, but the Kostelnička, returning, tells her that the baby died while she slept. Laca appears and comforts Jenůfa gently, asking that they spend the rest of their lives together. Seeing the tenderness of the couple, the Kostelnička tries to convince herself that she has acted for the best.

Act 3

It is now spring, and Laca and Jenůfa's wedding day. All seems right again, except that the Kostelnička is a nervous wreck. Števa and Karolka visit, and a chorus of village girls sings a wedding song. Just then, screams are heard. The body of the baby has been discovered in the mill-stream under the melting ice. Jenůfa immediately says that the baby is hers, and in her grief appears guilty of the murder. The village is ready to exact immediate justice against Jenůfa, but the Kostelnička calms them and says that the crime is hers. Hearing the whole story, Jenůfa forgives her stepmother. The crowd takes the Kostelnička off to jail. Jenůfa and Laca are left alone. Jenůfa asks Laca to leave her, as she cannot expect him to marry her now. He replies that he will not leave her, and that he wishes to spend the rest of his life with her.

Venue Info

Opera Antwerpen - Antwerp
Frankrijklei 1

The Royal Flemish Opera was the almost 100-year-old independent Antwerp city opera until its merger in 1981 with the Royal Opera in Ghent. Both city operas were merged into the Opera voor Vlaanderen organization, renamed Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in 2014. Anyone entering an opera house immediately gets a special feeling. The imposing buildings with their ancient decorations and stately staircases and columns immediately transport you to another era: that of red carpets and opulent luxury. Going to a performance in this unique setting gives your opera visit that little bit more. However, opera houses are not only venues for performances, they also tell a story in themselves. Although they are old, they have not always existed, and both locations have undergone extensive restoration.

Opera has been performed in Antwerp since 1660, first in the Spaansche Pant on the Grote Markt and later in the Tapissiers building on the site where the Bourlaschouwburg would later be built.
In 1834, the Bourlaschouwburg opened as the Théâtre Royal. Only French repertoire was performed. Some locals still refer to the Bourlaschouwburg as 'French opera'.
Spurred on by composer Peter Benoit, among others, Antwerp decided in 1899 to build a Flemish Opera as a counterpart to the Bourlaschouwburg.
One of the ideas was to build an opera house in the city park, but this met with much protest. It was feared that the park would lose its character.
Eventually, the choice was made to build the Kunstlei (the current Frankrijklei) on the spot where the covered Hallen en Markten (the Criée) used to be. These had moved to the Van Wesenbekestraat. Construction started in 1904 and lasted three years.
On 18 October 1907, the Flemish Opera in Antwerp was festively opened. The neo-baroque building decorated in Louis XVI style was immediately loved by the public.
All the public, rich and not so rich, entered the hall, a very democratic idea for that time. Those with money walked straight up the stately stairs to the ground floor or first balcony. Those who sat on the higher, cheaper balconies had to take a separate staircase to get there.
Today, the hall has 1081 seats. The ceiling fresco represents Rythmus and shows a male figure surrounded by nine female muses.
At the opening, the opera was technically very modern, as it made full use of the new electric light. The opening of the stage measures 11.90 metres in width.
The stage tower is 23 metres high.
In 2004, the opera closed for the first time for a thorough renovation, which was to last three years. The technology was modernized, the stage was given a side stage, and a new building for offices and workrooms was built.