Don’t Miss Live Janáček Opera from Brno

The Excursions of Mr. Brouček is Janáček’s most overtly comic opera, the comedy essentially deriving from the confrontation of Mr Brouček with worlds beyond his limited imagination. The effect, however, is rather different in the two halves. In the first excursion Mr Brouček, in comparison with the rarefied moon-artists, offers the voice of sturdy common sense. In the second, Mr Brouček’s ‘reasonableness’ makes a poor showing against the sacrifices of the patriotic Hussites. Janáček’s motive for setting this second excursion was a moral appeal to the citizens of the future Czechoslovak Republic. The opera was not easy to create, Janáček went through several librettists; it took him nine years to reach a successful conclusion. But the result is a delightfully experimental piece notably with music of great charm in the first half and rousing Hussite chorales in the second. For this new production from the heart of the composer’s home country, Janáček Festival Brno has entrusted the staging to the famous Canadian director, Robert Carsen who thus opens the 2024 Festival with this, his sixth production of a Janáček opera.  Live stream for our Slippedisc readers, courtesy of OperaVision.

The Plot:  we are off on an excursion, two excursions in fact, in the company of a landlord from Prague, who is, let us say, a little rough around the edges. The first journey of Mr Brouček is to the Moon where our beer-drinking hero (literally ‘Mr Beetle’) meets the oh-so sophisticated Moon-dwellers. In the second, we travel through time to the early 15th century to a heroic period in Czech history when the Czechs fought off armies of crusaders from the rest of Europe. Will Mr Brouček fare any better in Prague circa 1420, when Czechs are on the eve of a famous victory defending their Hussite faith?

Sung in Czech. Subtitles in English and Czech.

Live stream on Wednesday 4th December 2024 at 1900  CET  / 1800  London  / 1300  New York