Hell is paved with good intentions

Theater an der Wien [ENA] Hell is paved with good intentions is the sentence which is attributed to the English writer of the 18th century Samuel Johnson who said this sentence in 1755. This sentence could be also applied to the action of the mother of Jenufa in the opera performed by the Theater an der Wien. Jenufa is the oper of Leoš Janáček which was written by the end of the 19th century.

From the best case for her daughter, she is killing the baby which was born outside the marriage, a shameful and indecent situation according to the morality of that time. But this act lays as a heavy burden to the conciseness of the mother of Jenufa and still becomes known with the following up penalty. But besides the wonderful music and colorful decorations the idea of the opera of Jenufa is not the moral preaching about actions of the mother of Jenufa but about the personality of Jenufa herself.

Jenufa is a treasure – beautiful, good hearted, intelligent, careful. But somehow, she is not lucky in meeting people on her way who would really care for her. Her fiancé is an alcoholic who is mistreating and abusing her. He finally leaves her with the baby even without wish to see the baby. Her second fiancé is ready to damage her face to guarantee that she would not be attractive to another one with the scarf on the face. Her mother is ignoring her callings for help when she was sick. And Jenufa is forgiving them all. And this is the question is it the gratitude and the strength of the character or does it open the way of mistreatment and unfair behavior towards her.

Anyways Jenufa is a fantastic excursion into the Czech village of the nineteenth century and relationships among peasants showing their hard life but also their interests, fests, interactions and beaty of the soul. The role of Jenufa is performed by Svetlana Aksenova, the Russian soprano singer who fantastically performed this challenging role. Prior to Jenufa Svetlana was singing the role of Lisa in Tschaikowskis Pique Dame and the role of Rusalka in the Dvořáks opera Rusalka. She is also known for singing so challenging roles as Cio-Cio-San in Puccinis Madama Butterfly and Elisabeth in Wagners Tannhäuser.