Jenufa by Leoš Janáček is classified by some fans as “verismo” because it stoked the emotions. It capitalized on the drama that unfolds and effectively seeped into the music. Because if there is one opera that rarely had a happy moment, it’s Jenufa by Leoš Janáček. The happiness that you see at Act 3 even looks forced. I am like “Can’t these people finally get the chance to be happy?” I don’t think everyone who had seen this opera would agree with me in saying that it’s a happy ending.
But what made Jenufa by Leoš Janáček depressing to an extent? You are aware of women that got pregnant who demanded marriage from the child’s father. And it’s Jenufa. Because she’s getting married. She’s supposed to be happy. But she’s not. Her fiance, Steva, might be enlisted to the army. And she’d be (in her definition) “dishonored”. I understood that line as “if he didn’t marry me, I’d have a child out of wedlock”. She can’t say the exact status. But you get that idea with the kind of panic attack she’s getting. Jenufa’s early arias were like operatic versions of a panic attack. You can’t look away because there is an artistic way of highlighting the anxiety in a woman’s situation.
Sometimes the lines at Jenufa by Leoš Janáček were confusing because Steva and Laca called the Kostelnicka “Aunt”. I thought Kostelnicka is a name. And if I didn’t peep at the synopsis after watching this opera, I wouldn’t know that it’s not a name. It’s an honorific title. And these men call her “Aunt” out of respect. It reminds me of how we call other people “Uncle” and “Aunt” in our local dialect not because they are our uncles and aunts but because it’s a respectable way to address them. Some Czech readers might know better about these honorific ways to address their elders. I just found it awkward for Steva and Laca to call Kostelnicka “Aunt” when both of them wanted to marry Jenufa.
Jenufa by Leoš Janáček works better as a character analysis though. Was it Jenufa’s honor that Kostlenicka wanted to preserve or her own honor? These women lived in a village where their beliefs on honor are still surrounded on keeping the vagina’s hymen intact. Or, to be blunt about it, not getting your cherry popped until marriage. It’s infuriating that Steva got away with his chauvinism for a time. And I found it baffling that Jenufa’s only choices for marriage are Steva and Laca.
I find it hard to feel bad for Laca. The grandmother favored Steva over Laca. Jenufa refused Laca to be engaged to Steva. Then Laca snaps and cuts the very thing that made Steva attacted to Jenufa. It turned out into a blessing in disguise. Steva only loved Jenufa because she had cheeks like rosy apples. He didn’t even want to see his child. He practically dumped Jenufa to marry the mayor’s pretty daughter. He even blamed Kostelnicka’s behavior and Jenufa’s change of behavior at Jenufa by Leoš Janáček for his fear of marrying the woman he got pregnant. So these men do wrong things and expect the women to bear them. (Don’t yell patriarchy yet. Jenufa by Leoš Janáček is not a feminist opera, in my opinion.)
The only person I really end up feeling bad for is Jenufa. She kept the baby. Kostelnicka didn’t. She’s practically pushed into a marriage with Laca because he’s the only one willing to accept her no matter what. Even if Jenufa tried to push him away out of embarrassment, Laca chose to stay and share the embarrassment. Every time she sang her arias, it looked like her tears are about to fall. She got so resigned to her fate. Even the music got dragged into her depression for the most part of Jenufa by Leoš Janáček.
You then realize why the original title for Jenufa by Leoš Janáček is “Její pastorkyňa” which means “Her Stepmother”. Nothing much in this opera implied that Kostelnicka is Jenufa’s stepmother. But we can never doubt Kostelnicka’s concern for Jenufa. The moment you realize how the rock in Act 1 is just a mound, grows big in Act 2 and gets shattered to pieces at Act 3 is that it will cause Jenufa’s damnation unless she does something about it. And yeah, the part where she is projecting her need to save her honor by making it look like she is saving Jenufa’s honor is eventually obvious. Soon, she realized that the only way to rectify the error that cannot be undone is by coming clean.
Sometimes, opera serves as a medium to expose the hypocrisies going on in society. Jenufa by Leoš Janáček becomes one of them because it does not condemn Jenufa for getting pregnant out of wedlock. It presented authentically how society, the rural community present at Jenufa by Leoš Janáček, has difficulty absorbing the idea that their bastion of morality becomes guilty herself of a mortal sin. But they don’t have a problem with stoning Jenufa to death either for being an unwed mother or for suspicion of infanticide. Between Jenufa and Kostelnicka, it was Kostelnicka who confessed to the crime. It’s the scene that makes you scream at the angry mob “What’s wrong with you? What has religion done to you?”
Jenufa by Leoš Janáček may not have implied that stoning to death as penalty for “dishonor” still exists in certain countries regardless of what religion is dominant in their area. But it keeps the awareness alive with its haunting melody. The 2004 version staged at Gran Teatre de Liceu Barcelona has a claustrophobic quality in Act 2 that makes you empathize with Jenufa’s loneliness plus symbolism exuded by the rocks onstage. Its DVD version is now available on Amazon for you to enjoy complete with subtitle language of your choice. Click here to get your own copy quick. Don’t forget to click the “Donate” button below to send over your tips. Thanks for reading.
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