From the house of the dead & Glagolitic Mass
National Theatre Brno

From the House of the Dead & Glagolitic Mass

Janáček
Live in
This performance is no longer viewable as video-on-demand for rights reasons but other material about the production is still available.
Live on Available until
Sung in
Czech
Subtitles in
English
Czech

Can the darkest moments of life also lift our souls? Drawing on his own experience in a Siberian prison in the company of misfits, murderers and theives, Dostoevsky was inspired to write his novel Notes from a Dead House, telling his brother at the time: ‘Believe me, there were among them deep, strong, beautiful natures, and it often gave me great joy to find gold under a rough exterior.’

In Janáček’s hands, Dostoevsky’s inspiration and the raw material drawn from an appalling world of incarceration find an even more powerful form of expression in his last opera, From the House of the Dead. Unfettered by conventional story-telling, Janáček wrote his own libretto, freely weaving together a series of stories of everyday prison life and of the fates of individual convicts. The cast is exclusively male and made up of a collective, rather than of interacting soloists; a chorus opera from which individual speakers step out to tell their tales. The longest monologue of all, Šiškov’s, told in the quietness of the prison hospital at night, is emblematic of the whole opera: a harrowing tale constructed around a transcendentally gentle theme, just as Janáček’s own compassion threads through and transforms his grimmest and yet most uplifting opera. Despite an oppressive finale, Janáček wrote at the beginning of the score, ‘In every creature a spark of God!’ And this is this spark that inspired the National Theatre in the composer’s home city of Brno, to connect Janáček’s last opera with an equally distinctive work, his Glagolitic Mass. Janáček said of his Mass‘I wanted to capture here faith in the security of the nation not on a religious basis, but on a moral, strong one, which takes God as a witness.’ This live stream from the heart of Janáček country - offering a staged version of the Glagolitic Mass as a continuation of From the House of the Dead in a new critical edition by Prof. John Tyrrell - should bear new testimony to the power of faith in man and to the genius of their local composer.

Cast


FROM THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD

 

Alexander Petrovich Gorjanchikov
Roman Hoza
Luka - Filka Morozov / Cobbler's Wife
Gianluca Zampieri
Skuratov / Priest’s Wife
Peter Berger
Shishkov / Miller
Pavol Kubáň
Prison Governer
Jan Šťáva
Aljeja, a young Tatar
Jarmila Balážová
Tall Prisoner / Young Prisoner / Voice from the Kirghiz Steppe / Actor - Prisoner / Prisoner 3 / Elvira
Zbigniew Malak
Short Prisoner / Prisoner 1 / Blacksmith / Chekunov / Miller’s Wife
Lukáš Bařák
Shapkin / Drunken Prisoner/ Merry Prisoner / Neighbour
Eduard Martyniuk
Prisoner with the Eagle / Prisoner 2 / Kedril / Cherevin
Vít Nosek
The Old One
Petr Levíček
Prisoner A / Don Juan / Brahman
Tadeáš Hoza
Priest / Doctor
Josef Škarka
Cook / Clerk
Kornél Mikecz
Prisoner B / Obstreperous Prisoner / Knight
David Nykl
Whore
Jana Hrochová
Guard
Vilém Cupák
Eagle
Michal Heriban
Luisa
Edit Antalová
Aljeja’s Mother
Eva Novotná
Akulina
Kateřina Kněžíková
Chorus
National Theatre Brno Choir
Orchestra
National Theatre Brno Orchestra
...
Music
Leoš Janáček
Text
Leoš Janáček
after Fiodor Dostoïevski
Conductor
Jakub Hrůša
Director
Jiří Heřman
Sets
Tomáš Rusín
Costumes
Zuzana Štefunková Rusínová
Lighting
Jiří Heřman
Dramaturgy
Patricie Částková
Chorus masters
Martin Buchta
Pavel Koňárek
Choreography
Jan Kodet
...

GLAGOLITIC MASS

 

Soprano
Kateřina Kněžíková
Alto
Jarmila Balážová
Jana Hrochová
Tenor
Peter Berger
Eduard Martyniuk
Bass
Jan Šťáva
Josef Škarka
Chorus
National Theatre Brno Choir
Orchestra
National Theatre Brno Orchestra
...

Videos

Trailer

Sneak peek at From the House of the Dead & Glagolitic Mass

In every creature a spark of God!

Read lessRead more
Extract

Prelude

Janáček's opera From the House of the Dead starts with a powerful prelude. Another day begins, more suffering… a punishment for those who are guilty and those who are innocent but ended up here. Murderers, political prisoners, thieves and vagrants all brought together.

Read lessRead more
Behind the scenes

Behind the scenes of From the House of the Dead & Glagolitic Mass

Meet the cast and creative team of the new production of Janáček's From the House of the Dead and Glagolitic Mass at National Theatre Brno.

Read lessRead more
Behind the scenes

Gianluca Zampieri (Tenor)

Tenor Gianluca Zampieri talks about his character in Janáček’s From the House of the Dead at National Theatre Brno.

Read lessRead more
Behind the scenes

Jiří Heřman (Director)

Director Jiří Heřman explains what connects Janáček's last opera From the House of the Dead with the Glagolitic Mass.

Read lessRead more
Behind the scenes

Jakub Hrůša (Conductor)

Conductor Jakub Hrůša had the idea to connect Janáček's last opera From the House of the Dead with the Glagolitic Mass.

Read lessRead more

THE STORY


Part 1

A place at the end of the world…

Another day begins, more suffering… a punishment for those who are guilty and those who are innocent but ended up here. Murderers, political prisoners, thieves and vagrants all brought together. A wounded eagle makes everyone long for lost freedom. Another convict is brought in, Goryanchikov. His declaration that he is a political prisoner only provokes cruelty from the prison governor. Snippets of narrative sound into the monotonous work. Skuratov reminisces about Moscow, Luka’s thoughts return to the murder of the Major. Another day somewhere at the end of Siberia is coming to an end…

It is summer and the prisoners are dismantling a shipwreck on the shores of the Irtysh. The Tatar boy Aljeja tells Goryanchik about his mother. A holiday, is a holiday! The monotony is broken by celebrations. Pop blesses the food and the prisoners prepare an impromptu theatre performance. Over the meal, Skuratov tells of his love for Lujza, for whom he killed her second suitor, an old German. The memories and longing for the women they have abandoned or harmed is omnipresent in the male world of the prison.

The play about Don Juan’s last day begins. The prisoners play with vigour the women and devils, which Juan eventually falls for. The theatre continues with a comedy about a beautiful miller cheating on her husband. But the feast ends tragically when Aljeja is injured in an argument by one of the prisoners.
 

Part 2

It is night, the sleep of the sick is full of restless dreams. Their actions will never cease to haunt them. The old man watches, prays and thinks of his children... he realises that he will never see them again. Like most of the prisoners, he will never leave this place alive. Skuratov calls Lujza in his sleep. Shapkin, the vagrant, tells the others how he was caught stealing and the police commissioner pulled him out by his ears. Shishkov’s torn narrative turns into a confession and gradually reveals the story of an unhappy love for an innocent girl, Akulina, whose honour was tarnished by Filka Morozov out of revenge. Shishkov was married to her. After the wedding, he discovered that Filka’s accusation was false, but Akulka confessed that she still loved Filka and always would. Drunk Shishkov kills her. As he recounts his deed, Luka dies a short distance away. Shishkov recognises Filka in him. His rail against the dead is interrupted by the Old Man saying ‘His mother also gave birth…’

The guards call Goryanchikov. The prison governor tells him that he is released, his mother has begged a pardon for him. He is accompanied by the prisoners’ cries for freedom. ‘Run!’ the guards shout. Goryanchikov is leaving for a new life. The others remain in a place of no return...

After death, souls wander on, carrying their guilt and remorse with them. Akulina, Lujza, Aljeja’s mother and other women bring compassion and forgiveness. Through them redemption can come.