Director Alvis Hermanis's masterpiece by Leoš Janáček highlights the ethnographic splendor of the culture of the Central European region without losing the dramatic tension so characteristic of the drama of Jenůfa 's life in the play imbued with Moravian colour. Jenůfa, based on Gabriela Preisova's drama Her Stepdaughter, is Czech composer Leoš Janáček's most famous opera. First performed in Brno in 1904, this will be the third production of Jenůfa at the Latvian National Opera.
This beautiful story of honor and dishonor, of love, crime, and forgiveness, reveals the terrible events in a Moravian village. Jenůfa is expecting a child from the irresponsible and drink-loving Števa. Števa's brother Laca also loves Jenůfa, but, in a fit of jealousy, with his affections not reciprocated, he mutilates Jenůfa 's face with a knife so that his brother would never look at it again. When Jenůfa confesses to the Kostelnička the relationship she has had with Števa, the stepmother does everything to hide the disgrace from the neighbors. In an effort to encourage Laca to marry Jenůfa, the Kostelnička secretly drowns Jenůfa 's newborn baby. Is it possible to forgive the unforgivable?