JANÁCHEK : HOUSE OF THE DEAD

New York Metropolitan Opera Broadcast
Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 11th of April 2010 at 3.03 pm

INTRODUCTION
COMPOSER
BACKGROUND
UNDERGROUND
CHARACTERS
SYNOPSIS
STORYLINE
REVIEW

JANÁCEK: From the House of the Dead, opera in 3 acts.
Janácek’s last opera, based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s account of life in a Russian prison in Siberia.
Gorianchikov................. Willard White
Skuratov....................... Kurt Streit
Shishkov....................... Peter Mattei
Filka Morozov.............. Stefan Margita
Shapkin......................... Peter Hoare
Alyeya.......................... Eric Stoklossa
Nikita............................ Peter Straka
Prisoner........................ Vladimir Chmelo
Prison Commandant...... Vladimir Ognovenko
Chekunov..................... Jeffrey Wells
Cook; Blacksmith....... Richard Bernstein
Drunk prisoner.............. Adam Klein
Priest............................ John Cheek
Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Orch/Esa-Pekka Salonen

The composer referred to it as "this black opera of mine", and "perhaps my greatest work". It was the death of him, and he did not see it performed.

The source for his libretto was the Russian novel by Dostoyevsky, Memoirs from the house of the dead, based on his own experience of four years in such a prison camp.

The theme is hope: the eagle with the broken wing at the beginning, trapped in the prison with the men, flies away at the end; and Goryanchikov (a political prisoner) also goes free.

The Czech title is z mrtvého domu, 'from the house of the dead' and since Slavic and Germanic and Latin are all related languages we can 'dead' in mrt and 'house' in domu. Do not look for a word for 'the' in these Slavic languages.

How to write his name so we can pronounce it? (Yanaachek.) The J = Y; the A as in banana (and the Á shows emphasis and length, as in banána); the C should have a little v on top, pronounced like English ch, but ch (in Czech) is as in loch, and c = ts. Note that the names on the list of characters above (which are Russian) have been altered in this way. Other languages think it natural to write their words 'foneticliy' so that they can be pronounced at sight; the English have no such qualms, because they want to make it impossible for foreigners to learn this system, which they think to be a civilized thing, but it is actually uncouth and unruly (or ancuuth aend anruuliy).

The record I own, on 2 black discs in a box, is in the Decca series of Janác(h)ek operas, featuring the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the great Australian musician Charles Mackerras.  In this New York recording from November 2009, we have a Finnish conductor.

Notice the Jamaican baritone Willard White as Goryanchikov; we are more used to hearing him as Porgy, singing I've got plenty of nothing.