Simon Rattle’s LSO concerts of Janáček’s operas, which began with The Cunning Little Vixen in 2019 and continued last year with Katya Kabanova, have become red-letter events in the orchestra’s calendar. Jenůfa – arguably the composer’s greatest achievement in opera, and that’s saying something – was to have starred Asmik Grigorian, but her withdrawal was announced a few weeks ago, and she was replaced by the Swedish soprano Agneta Eichenholz. That meant that this performance had at its fulcrum a very different kind of singer: softer-edged, less steely, but still magnetic.
Janáček’s music is a formidable backdrop for a cast of singers, especially when the orchestra is up close on stage with them rather than playing from the pit – and yet more so when it’s played with the almost relentless muscle and lyricism Rattle drew from the LSO here. Eichenholz’s Jenůfa – clutching a shawl around her concert dress, buffeted by the music yet maintaining a natural flow in her singing – seemed the more vulnerable for it. That’s one way of interpreting the character, certainly, although it felt a little underdrawn.
