I wonder if anyone else has seen this. I went to it last night in Liverpool, rather in trepidation because the story is so nasty. I have never seen it before, although I've heard it on the radio, so I was very curious. In the event, I wasn't really as harrowed as I feel I should be, possibly because I knew exactly what was going to happen all the way through (though I'm always affected by Peter Grimes, which I know inside out, so it can't be entirely that.)

I couldn't fault the performance, orchestra excellent under Sian Edwards (who still looks exactly as she did, red hair flying, when she conducted a Belshazzar's Feast I was in years ago), and barely a weak link in the cast. I really don't think you would hear it better sung at Covent Garden. Nuccia Focile was a superb Jenufa, singing beautifuuly and looking just right, Susan Bickley an absolutely wonderful Kostelnicka - I don't think it was only because she is a Liverpudlian that she got the biggest cheer of the evening. As ever, I was deeply impressed by Peter Hoare (Laca). He has a superb voice, and he can act as well. I think the reason he isn't more famous must be that he hasn't recorded a great deal. He could easily sing any of the Britten roles, but hasn't done many. A real star, in my view.

Katie Mitchell's production is unpretentious and straightforward, a rare enough thing in opera these days. I think the reason I wasn't overwhelmed is that the story, dramatic as it is, is pure soap opera, a bit like Tess of the D'Urbervilles. The music and libretto are indivisible, which is good, but the music doesn't startle me in any way. I'm glad to have seen it, though, and it was good performance to see for a first time. I wasn't left thinking I hadn't really seen it, as I was after the Baked Bean Wozzeck!

I'm going to see this at The Mayflower in November, Mary, and am looking forward to it even more after reading your report. I've seen Nuccia Focile several times with WNO and have been surprised that she's not really hit the 'big time' internationally, other than a very good Tatyana on Bychkov's recording of Eugene Onegin. I've only ever seen Jenůfa on DVD, so this production touring so close was something I didn't want to miss.

Jim, I may be missing something, but if my extensive research into the thread title hasn't been totally misguided, I'd hazard a guess that it's 'Welsh National Opera'. 

Yes, Welsh National Opera. Only one performance of this opera in Liverpool, alas, with Otello and Barber of Seville yet to come (I'm not going to those). The audience was fairly sparse downstairs where I was, though very appreciative, but the Liverpool Empire is a huge theatre, difficult to fill. It tends to diffuse drama rather. I can imagine that PW's village hall would be better  - it would indeed be searing in close-up.

I didn't mention the brief strange scene Katie Mitchell tacked onto the end. It was rather beautiful, but ambiguous. It may have been the dead child in heaven, or it may have been an imagined child of Jenufa and Laca. I gather it had been changed since the first performances. It was the only aspect of the production that was at all puzzling.

Unfortunately opilec is too busy on said opera to go and see it this time round.   But I have seen this production before (in Birmingham, IIRC), and it was very powerful.  So, too, was Katie Mitchell's TV version of Act 2 (adapted from this production, I think), which was marred only by a curious decision to sing it in distinctly bad Czech.   (The real shame about that decision was that the TV film would certainly otherwise have been exportable to the Czechs themselves - either in better Czech or in English.)

Sian Edwards conducted the production before last at ENO, which I seem to remember was less impressive.

Now, back to the grindstone.  (Shurely "millstone"? Ed.)

I've just returned from seeing this production in Southampton (same cast that Mary saw in Liverpool last month). As I wrote earlier, I'd never seen it in the theatre before and it was gripping drama; the lady in front of me winced immediately when Laca leant across the table and grabbed the knife in Act I and there were gasps when the dead baby was brought in at the end. Super cast, but the highlight was the Kostelnička of Susan Bickley and her anguish in Acts II and III which was gut-wrenching. The horror at the end of Act II was palpable and I couldn't leave my seat to go and wander around the auditorium/ eat ice cream - it seemed the wrong thing to do, after such an emotional impact. The WNO Orchestra sounded very fine - for those of you who know it, isn't The Mayflower's pit simply enormous?!!

Gosh! Thanks for that, Reiner. Will give that a go over the weekend.

Nice to see you! 

Looks very good as you say. (I just watched ten minutes or so.) It's up until 31 December it seems.