London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle conductor. Peter Hoare, Brouček; Aleš Briscein Mazal/Blankytný/Petřík; Lucy Crowe, Málinka/Etherea/Kunka; Gyula Orendt , akristán/Lunobor/Domšík; Lukáš Zeman, Svatopluk/Würfl/Čaroskvoucí/Ratsherr Doubravka Novotná, Číšníček/Wunderkind/Student; Arttu Kataja, Artist/Dohuslav/Vojta; Linard Vrielink, Skladatel/Harfoboj/Miroslav; Hanna Hipp, Kedruta. Tenebrae
This is a work I have never seen live before and I’ve never indeed had a recording of/ heard a note of the music. It has had an occasional appearance at the ENO and ‘country house opera houses’ over the last 50 years but in the UK is probably the least known of Janacek’s operas. I looked up Wikipedia as a first resort, which says that “The Excursions of Mr. Brouček to the Moon and to the 15th Century …….is …. based on two Svatopluk Čech novels”. “Brouček (translated as “Mr. Beetle” (literally little beetle) is a Philistine landlord in Prague who experiences a series of fantastic events as he is swept away (due in large part to excessive drinking) first to the Moon and then to 15th-century Prague, during the Hussite uprising against the Holy Roman Empire in 1420. In both excursions, Brouček encounters characters who are transformed versions of his earthly acquaintances. ………………… Janáček’s campaign, along with Čech’s, was against the pettiness of the bourgeoisie, specifically of Czechoslovakia. However, …….. [Mr Broucek’s]s shortcomings, failings, and ordinariness tend to be seen as qualities common to regular citizens of all lands”.
I went to this concert feeling slightly dutiful – almost a tick box exercise. It was far more than that, however. The first thing that struck me about the work is its accessibility and its warmth and varied melodic content. It is a lot easier to ‘get’ than say the ‘Makropoulos Case’, though it lacks the latter’s final radiant peroration, which several of Janacek’s operas have. There are Hussite battle hymns, bagpipes, waltzes, lullabies, a moon anthem, and some lovely lyrical themes for the moon aesthetes. There is a sunniness about the work, a positivity, which I haven’t heard in the same way in other Janacek operas.
One of the curiosities of the opera is that the original writer of the stories about Broucek is said to have focused on his crudeness and bourgeois narrow-mindedness, and Janacek seems to have seemed him in the same way. Yet, the music makes the moon artistic community feel rather precious, while Broucek in his manoeuvres to avoid being part of the Hussite army seems to be making a very appropriate response to the blood thirsty heavily nationalistic Hussite hymns. This makes the whole work easier to take for a modern audience.
A concert performance can’t give the full picture of a work of this kind, and there were various orchestral interludes where you wondered what was meant to be going on and what a director would do with them. Apart from Peter Hoare playing Broucek and his (by the end) 2 bottles of Czech lager next to him, and to a lesser extent the body language and movement of Lucy Crowe, no-one was really acting on the stage and that did mean at times, particularly in the moon sequences, and even with surtitles, it was difficult to know what exactly was happening. But overall the evening engaged me – there were even a few laughs – and made me want to see this in the theatre.
The LSO performed the work brilliantly, bringing out all the jaggedness of Janacek’s music but also at times its memorable and warm melodies (some lovely string playing). The brass, always important in Jancek, made a big impression in the 15th century, and the timpani had the right unyielding sound.
The stars of the show were Peter Hoare, with a clear, cutting tenor and a well-acted fusty manner that made him the personification of Broucek-ism; Lucy Crowe, whose voice and phrasing sounds more beautiful than ever, and Aleš Briscein, who had the perfect voice for those high powerful tenor roles which Janacek seems to specialise in writing for. I was also impressed by the bright voice of Doubravka Novotná. Tenebrae formed the very impressive chorus. Simon Rattle commanded all the forces with energy and love – I saw Tony Pappano in the audience taking a night off from conducting Walkuere at ROHCG and wondered how he enjoyed the event!
John's musical journey 