Michael Hendrick (as Laca) who loves (Jenufa) but inflicts a disfiguring injury on her… A first class performance, and equal to a knockout in musical and emotional potency.

It’s tempting, but inaccurate, to call Leos Janacek’s “Jenufa” a “Jerry Springer” opera. Yes, it has a soap-opera plot peppered with family dysfunction – how many operas don’t? But brilliant characterization and a luminous musical score make “Jenufa” a 20th-century gem, now playing in a polished production at Utah Opera.

The story, set in late 19th-century Moravia, revolves around four leads: Jenufa (Cynthia Clayton), to whom everything bad in the opera happens; Steva (Robert Breault), who impregnates and then abandons her; Laca (Michael Hendrick), who loves her but inflicts a disfiguring injury on her; and the Kostelnicka (Judith Forst), her stepmother, who drowns Jenufa’s baby because she believes the young, unmarried woman will be better off without him. All four singers gave first-class performances on opening night Saturday. Forst’s was the biggest knockout, but only because her character is the showiest; the others were every bit her equal in musical and emotional potency.

Janacek and librettist Gabriela Preissova draw the characters so skillfully that even when their actions horrify us, we can understand why they behave as they do. This is true not only of the leads, but also of the minor characters, brought to life with a few ingenious strokes. Doris Brunatti (the Shepherdess), Paula Murrihy (the Mayor’s Wife) and Leah Wool (Steva’s new fiance, Karolka) were particularly adept Saturday at conveying a lot with just a few lines. Gregory Pearson, one of Utah Opera’s most reliable supporting singers, also made the most of his Foreman character. (Others in the cast are Maryann Madden as the Shepherd Boy, Rebecca Brandt Hample as the servant Barena and Michael Rice as the Mayor.)

Director Thor Steingraber helps make all the relationships in the opera feel genuine and compelling. These are ordinary people who do some extraordinarily bad and some extraordinarily good things. The central relationship between Jenufa and Laca must be believable for this opera to work, and it is; the slashing incident comes across as an accident, and the characters’ final declaration of love is tender and real. The pricklier relationships, such as the one between the Kostelnicka and her mother-in-law (well-played by Josepha Gayer), also ring true. The more stylized staging in the last act, though, is an odd contrast to the realism that has come before.

Janacek’s score is a marvel, packed with folk-like charm, poignancy, passion and, in the final scene, nobility. Robert Tweten presided over an expert performance by the Utah Symphony, highlighted by concertmaster Ralph Matson’s sublime solos in the second act. The old familiar Verdi, Puccini and Mozart usually dominate the Utah Opera stage – and deservedly so. But the company deserves applause for bringing us this refreshing change of pace.

Czech, please

“Jenufa” continues at the Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City, tonight, Wednesday and Friday at 7:30, with a 2 p.m. matinee Sunday.

The Utah Opera production is just under three hours long and is sung in Czech, with an English translation projected above the stage.

Tickets are $10 to $65.

http://www.sltrib.com/homeandfamily/ci_2534183

by Catherine Reese Newton

The Salt Lake Tribune