4. 12. 2024, 7 p.m., reprise
Janáček Theatre
Author: Leoš Janáček
Conductor: Marko Ivanović
Director: Robert Carsen
Ensemble: Janáček Opera of the National Theatre Brno
Co-production: Teatro Real, Madrid; Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin
The performance lasts 170 minutes including a 25-minute intermission.
This performance is being recorded by Czech Television, main media partner to the festival. The performance is available on a live stream on the platform OperaVision.
Other dates of performance: 3.12. at 7 p.m. (festival echoes)
Part 1
It’s a busy evening at the Vikárka pub in Prague. Mr. Brouček, a local landlord, is more interested in his beer and sausages than in anything else. Málinka, the Sacristan’s daughter, is angry with her boyfriend Mazal, one of Mr. Brouček’s many tenants, because he has been seen dancing with another girl. To make him jealous, Malinka decides to flirt with Mazal’s landlord. Brouček is so drunk that he promises to marry her, but when her father asks him about the marriage, Broucek quickly insists that he was joking and would marry Malinka only if they were both on the Moon.
It’s late and the innkeeper Würfl closes the pub. Only the drunken Brouček is left behind. Before falling asleep, he tells the Moon that he’d rather live up there and avoid all the people who never pay their rent and try to steal his money.
Dreaming he is on the Moon, Brouček recognises some of the Moon dwellers: one of them, called Blankytný, seems very similar to Mazal, while another one, called Etherea, clearly reminds Brouček of Málinka. This same Etherea, led on by her father Lunobor and attended by many Moon maidens, instantly falls in love with Brouček. Helped by the Moon maidens, Etherea manages to abduct the reluctant landlord.
When Etherea re-appears with Brouček, Čaroskvoucí, another inhabitant of the Moon, introduces the strange earthling to all the artists on the Moon, but the hungry and thirsty Brouček is not remotely interested in poetry, music, or art of any kind. The Moon artists live entirely by sniffing flowers, and the famished Brouček disgusts them when he suddenly pulls a sausage out of his pocket. As they leave in horror, Brouček hopes finally to be left alone to eat in peace, but he is prevented by the ever more passionate Etherea…
Brouček’s imaginary visit to the Moon ends back on Earth in the safety of the Vikárka pub where he sleeps peacefully, while Mazal and Malinka make up after their argument…
Part 2
Brouček, in no way discouraged by his adventures on the Moon, has got drunk once again in the Vikárka pub, where he sets off on an even more surprising and dangerous adventure: he now imagines himself in the medieval streets of Prague, caught up with the Czech people as they fight enemy invaders. These patriots, even those whom Brouček recognises, welcome him as a kindred spirit, but Brouček intends to avoid fighting at all costs: he may love his country, its beer and sausages, but he’s not willing to give up his life for them.
When the people of Prague celebrate victory over the enemy, Brouček brags about how bravely he fought, but he is accused of lying to cover up his cowardly behaviour. He is sentenced to be burned alive in a beer barrel when he suddenly wakes up, in the safety of one of the empty beer tanks of the Vikárka pub.
Thrilled to have returned intact from his latest incredible journey, Brouček brags to the innkeeper about his heroic deeds, but implores him to be discreet and not tell anyone about them…
Director: Robert Carsen
Conductor: Marko Ivanović
Scene: Radu Boruzescu
Costumes: Annemarie Woods
Lights: Robert Carsen / Peter van Praet
Choreography: Rebecca Howell
Dramaturgy: Robert Carsen / Patricie Částková
Chorus director: Martin Buchta (The Excursion of Mr. Brouček to the Moon)
Chorus director: Pavel Koňárek (The Excursion of Mr. Brouček to the 15. Century)
Assistant Director: Gilles Rico / Otakar Blaha
Assistant of Costume Designer: Ilona Karas, Magdalena Černá
Assistant of the Scene: Matěj Kos / Mathieu Crescence
Assistant of Choreographer: Oliver Metzler
Stage manager: Silvie Adamová / Monika Hliněnská
Cast:
Matěj Brouček – Nicky Spence
Mazal / Blankytný / Petřík – Daniel Matoušek
Sacristan at St. Vitus Cathedral / Lunobor / Domšík of the Bell – David Szendiuch
Málinka / Etherea / Kunka – Doubravka Novotná
Würfl / Čaroskvoucí / Councillor – Jan Šťáva
Little Waiter / Child Prodigy / Student: – Andrea Široká
Kedruta – Jana Horáková Levicová
Svatopluk Čech – Daniel Kfelíř
Poet / Cloudy / Vacek Bradatý / Other voice – Tadeáš Hoza
Painter / Duhoslav / Vojta of Peacokcs / Voice of the Professor – Vít Nosek
Composer / Harpoboy / Miroslav the Goldsmith – Ondřej Koplík
First Taborite – Petr Karas
Second Taborite / Another Poet (Moon part) – Pavel Valenta
The motto of the 9th edition of the festival No limits! was inspired by Janáček’s fifth opera The Excursions of Mr. Brouček, in which the main character takes us to the Moon and for a journey through the time. The same motto could be used to describe the work of director Robert Carsen, creator of productions appreciated worldwide for their dramatic grasp, poetics, humour and artistic sophistication. The famous director’s path intersected with the work of the Czech composer many years ago and today Carsen has staged six of Janáček’s operas. In 2020, he created a production of Destiny for the Brno ensemble and now he returns to the stage of the Janáček Theatre to open the festival with his new production of The Excursions of Mr. Brouček.
None of Janáček’s operas can be called comic, although humour is never absent in them, but rather as rare spice. But in this opera about the landlord from Malá Strana, a typically Czech little man, Janáček sparkles with humour, even if it is quite sharp-edged. Janáček found his inspiration in the popular novellas by the poet Svatopluk Čech and complemented his satire to perfection with music in a dance rhythm and the use of unusual instruments such as the glass harmonica or bagpipes. While the first part of the opera, the trip to the Moon, aimed its blistering humour at Prague critics, intellectuals and artists, the second half, set in the Hussite period, took aim at the unpleasant qualities of the Czech nation in general.
The opera was not easy to create, Janáček changed several librettists and it took him nine years to reach a successful conclusion of The Excursion of Mr Brouček to the Moon after all the trouble with the libretto. At the end, he sighed at his poets: “Oh, but our poets! One is to tell them everything – and the result is still poor!” Nevertheless, after finishing the opera, he decided to expand it with one more part, an excursion to the 15th century. This time, he and the librettist F. S. Procházka managed to produce it quickly, but from then on Janáček wrote his own librettos. And why did he choose Čech’s Mr. Brouček? He described it beautifully in his letter to Kamila Stösslová:
“So do you know who Brouček is? He’s just an ordinary man; he swears at the world and spends his life with a jug of beer in his hand. There is no use for him in the world. And you ask: “Why would you choose such a man for the opera then?” So that he may be an abomination to all, for mockery and a warning! The Russians also had such a “soft” man; his name was Oblomov. In fact, every other Russian was an Oblomov – and how they ended! A terrible revolution, now rivers of blood are cleaning it. That’s why I’m putting Brouček on display – as a warning. There are also more than enough of Broučeks here everywhere! All they think about are their stomachs. So my dear little Brouček gets drunk again, falls asleep somewhere in Hradčany and dreams: He flies to the Moon! He falls down there. Oh, the horror! The people there are satiated only by the scent of flowers. They only let Brouček sniff the flowers. And now there’s a Moonwoman falling in love with him! No blood, body like a stick!”
Patricie Částková
Note: Only a shortened English version of the program is available for free download here. The complete printed programme in Czech and English will be available for purchase directly at the performance.
