The Adventures of Mr Broucek

Synopsis

The beer-fuelled Mr Broucek's adventures take him through space and time: first to the moon and then to the middle of the revolution in 15th century Prague. By turns funny, surreal, tender and thrilling, the opera is full of wonderful portraits and parodies - of Janacek's homeland.

Our Review:

15 October 2009

The Adventures of Mr. Broucek, as Opera North’s General Director Richard Mantle points out in the programme book, is “two quite separate operas, composed at different times”. Despite a stunningly intelligent and imaginative production, it remains such. Even though the cunningly thought through designs achieve a large measure of integration, the differences in style and subject remain.

Mr. Broucek, a character in stories by the 19th century Czech writer, Svatopluk Cech, is a drunk who, falling out of the Vikarka Inn at closing time, embarks on fantasy adventures. In Leos Janacek’s opera, the first half takes in his journey to the Moon where the inhabitants are filled with an excessive artistic sensibility. Relationships and characters there parallel the Vikarka crowd with its sexual tension between Mazal the artist, Broucek and Malinka the Sacristan’s daughter. The second act takes us to Prague in 1420 with Broucek trying not to be involve...

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