Jenůfa

Die alte Buryja:  Helga Dernesch
Laca Klemen:  Jorma Silvasti
Števa Buryja:  Brandon Jovanovich
Die Küsterin Buryja:  Deborah Polaski
Jenůfa:  Eva-Maria Westbroek
Altgesell:  Christian Rieger
Dorfrichter: Christoph Stephinger
Frau des Dorfrichters:  Heike Grötzinger
Karolka:  Laura Tatulescu
Schäferin:  Angela Brower
Barena: Tara Erraught
Jano:  Laura Nicoresc

Conductor: Tomáš Hanus
Production: Barbara Frey

Went to Jenůfa at the Bayerische Staatsoper last night. It stopped raining for a few seconds. The opera was sung in Czech with German supertitles.

If you have been wondering what happened to Deborah Polaski, wonder no longer. She sang Kostelnička Buryjovka. Very nice. Another surprise name is Helga Dernesch as Grandmother Buryjovka. So she has gone from soprano to mezzo to contralto. Love her.

I didn't know Eva-Maria Westbroek who sang Jenůfa, but she was very good. They do quality opera, though everything is reset into a roughly contemporary time period. There is nothing period related about Jenůfa, so why not?

The evening's biggest curiosity came in the interlude. I was in the 1 Rang where there are several rooms facing the front of the opera house. These six rooms form into a circle, and everyone made a parade going counter-clockwise around the rooms. I thought why not and circled with everyone else holding my glass of Sekt.

People still studying in America sing roles here. The youthfulness of the casts is a big plus. They clap a lot louder and longer than we do.