Daniel and I made our way to Severance Hall to see the culmination of The Cleveland Orchestra’s season, a concert presentation of Leoš Janáček’s searing opera, Jenůfa. The opera is the primary event of the 2025 Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival, which focuses on the theme of reconciliation.
The opera’s
story is grim. Jenůfa wants to marry a man
named Števa. Jenůfa’s stepmother declares that Števa
may only marry Jenůfa if he refrains from drinking for a year. Števa
leaves town to serve in the military and returns to drunkenly boast of
his conquests of numerous women. Meanwhile,
another man, Laca – who happens to be Števa’s half-brother – pursues Jenůfa
and, when she rebuffs him and tolerates Števa’s shenanigans, Laca slashes her
face with a knife. Unbeknownst to
everyone is that Jenůfa is pregnant with Števa’s child. After the child is born, the stepmother worries
that Jenůfa will never be able to endure the humiliation of being a scarred, unwed-mother
in their provincial town, so she commits infanticide, hiding the baby’s body
under some ice in the nearby mill-stream.
Eventually, Laca is able to gain Jenůfa’s hand in marriage. But the wedding is interrupted when the baby’s
body is found and the stepmother is arrested.
As the authorities haul her away, Jenůfa sings of her forgiveness of the
stepmother, because she meant well.
I have to
say, anyone who murdered my child, even under the best of circumstances, would
be unable to earn my forgiveness – regardless of the prison sentence. But this is opera, not real life.
On purely
musical terms, Jenůfa was very well presented. Franz Welser-Möst is a master at pacing opera
presentations, and he kept the action moving while allowing the singers freedom
of phrasing. In particular, Latonia
Moore as Jenůfa and Nina Stemme as the stepmother not only sang extraordinarily
well, but presented their characters with a richness that were noteworthy for a
non-staged presentation. That’s right, Jenůfa
was given what they call a concert presentation – no sets, no
costumes. Instead, the singers were
placed on a raised platform, which I suspect was done for reasons of vocal
projection.
And here we
come to my problem with this performance: There was no reason not to stage this
opera, just as there was no reason to avoid staging Tristan und Isolde two
years ago. Let’s not kid ourselves. The Cleveland Orchestra is not lacking for
money. They received a $50 million grant
from the Mandel Foundation several years ago, and donations from individuals
and corporations continue to pour in. In
his essay included in the Festival’s rather lavish booklet, Welser-Möst refers
to the success of The Cunning Little Vixen in 2014; so extraordinarily well
received that the orchestra decided to present it again three years later. But one of the reasons Vixen was so
popular was precisely because of the staging. While an elaborate staging like those done
for Vixen and Pelléas and Mélisande would have been ideal, even a
modest staging would be preferable to having the cast stand around on an
elevated platform and sing from the score.
While the performance was very well received by the audience, I must
point out that I have never seen so many empty seats at an opera presentation
at Severance.
As noted above,
the theme of this year’s festival is reconciliation. Other events include a presentation of
African-American art, a performance of Latin music by Chucho Valdés and his Royal
Quartet, pianist Michelle Cann performing music from Chicago’s Black
Renaissance, a Symposium on immigration & reconciliation, and a screening
of The Royal Tenenbaums. In an
age when the United States in particular is becoming more economically
segregated, when people are being marginalized, it is heartening to see a
festival from a Classical music entity whose audiences are still overwhelmingly
white and older.
True reconciliation
can only exist if there is justice. An
historical example from American history is Reconstruction,
which was botched by Andrew Johnson and his successors. The primary instigators of the American Civil
War, including Jefferson Davis and other secessionists, never had to pay for
the consequences of their actions. Thus
Jim Crow, the segregation of everything from the use of public facilities to
miscegenation laws, and denying African-Americans the right to vote were
allowed to fester for a century. Even
six decades after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, disparities remain –
particularly with regard to income.
80 years later after the American Civil War, the United States had another decision to make: What to do with West Germany after Hitler’s defeat. The destruction in Germany was worse than that in the American South by orders of magnitude. Denazification was no easy task. Hitler’s government had not only launched the worst European conflagration in human history, it ruthlessly butchered large swaths of its own population, including Jews, Roma, Homosexuals, political opponents, and those with disabilities. The Holocaust was planned by the Nazi elite, but ordinary Germans helped carry it out – and many more looked away, refusing to see what was clearly visible. After the war Nazi leadership was put on trial, with many being executed. Other Germans, from the prominent to the ordinary, faced time in jail and suspension of their careers. Numerous lower-level figures were allowed to get on with their lives. But everyone was made to understand, if not accept, that Germany had lit the flame that set Europe on fire, how Nationalism and bigotry struck the match, and how ordinary Germans allowed it to happen. Teaching about the Holocaust became part of the required school curriculum and the display of Nazi symbols remains illegal in the reunified Germany. Denazification was not perfectly carried out – but at least it was a sincere effort to address some wrongs – something which was not even attempted after 1865. In the United States today, Confederate flags fly even in states which did not secede from the Union or allow slavery. As someone descended from members of the Union Army and Navy, including one who died at Gettysburg, I remain highly troubled by this. I have concluded that one of the great tragedies of our American history is that "deconfederatization" never took place in the Old South.
No justice, no peace.
Know justice, know peace.
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