Michael Tanner

Jarring Janacek

The Adventures of Mr Broucek<br /> Edinburgh Festival Theatre Prima Donna<br /> Sadler’s Wells

issue 24 April 2010

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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