Arthaus presents a staging of Jenůfa sung in the original Czech language. The production was directed by French- Austrian opera director Olivier Tambosi. For Janáček, opera was a vehicle for describing reality, and he pushed this idea to the point of fashioning a new theory about verismo. Its basis was that the two major strands, music and drama, were to be linked indivisibly in his operas. Olivier Tambosi takes up the challenge in a Jenůfa that is realistic, clear and direct in its exposition of the characters’ feelings. Yet he is also concerned to make key motifs in the work visible through symbolic elements on stage.

The director’s haunting dramaturgy is admirably brought to life by a cast of outstanding singer-actors. The result is a Jenůfa of immediately accessible emotions, with altogether physical characterization, explicit and more brutal than other stagings of the opera.

Stařenka Buryjovka - Victoria Cortez
Laca Klemeň - Jorma Silvasti
Števa Buryja – Pär Lindskog
Kostelnička Buryjovka - Eva Marton
Jenůfa - Nina Stemme
Stárek - Rolf Haunstein
Rychtář - Enric Serra
Rychtářka - Begoña Alberdi
Karolka - Christiane Boesiger
Pastuchnyňa - Carole Marais
Barena - Sandra Galiano
Jano - Ana Nebot
Tetka - Annett Andriesen

Orquestra Simfònica i Cor del Gran Teatre del Liceu
(chorus master: José Luis Basso)
Peter Schneider, conductor

Olivier Tambosi, stage director
Frank Philipp Schlößmann, set and costume design
Hans Toelstede, lighting design

Recorded live at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, 27 May and 2 June 2005

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 anamorphic
Sound format: LPCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Catalan
Booklet notes: English, German, French, Spanish
Running time: 127 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)