After our morning at Salgotarjani Cemetery, we spent the evening at the opera. This time it was Jenufa by Leos Janacek. It has been described as a grim story of infanticide and redemption. It's Janacek's first opera in prose. And it very naturalistic in the drama. But the opera itself is not grim. It is incredibly dramatic with music that sounds simultaneously like traditional folk and modern orchestration. The music is psychologically complex but instantly accessible.
The audience wouldn't let them leave.
It has been such an amazing privilege to live in a city that has such great music. We were able to go to four operas in the the three months we were in Budapest. And on each occasion we saw something we had never seen (and some cases never could see anywhere else): Banc Ban, Ariadne auf Naxos, Parsifal, and Jenufa. Of course we chose these four, and there were other more familiar operas on offer. But hearing these operas, all of them connected with the a time and place where culture was so rich, was an extraordinary gift.
#HungarianStateOpera #Jenufa #Leos Janacek #Budapest
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