The Adventures of Mr Broucek
Edinburgh Festival Theatre
Prima Donna
Sadler’s Wells
There is no composer to whose works my reactions fluctuate so much as Janacek. I don’t mean the various compositions in his output, I mean specific works on different occasions. When I saw a concert performance of his comic opera The Adventures of Mr Broucek at the Barbican in 2007, conducted by Jiri Belohlavek, I became an instant, passionate convert to a piece that I had previously thought was mostly a dismal flop. And I felt the same when the CDs of that performance were issued. Then, last October, when it was staged in English by Opera North in a co-production with Scottish Opera, directed by John Fulljames and conducted by Martin André, I admired the commitment of the endeavour, but couldn’t find much interest in the work.
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