Simon Rattle’s regular series of Janáček operas in concert performances with the LSO have been unmissable events. Previous operas performed have been Jenufa, Katya Kabanová and Cunning Little Vixen. This time Rattle has turned his attention to one of the composer’s less familiar works, The Excursions of Mr Brouček.
The opera is in two parts, the first treating the visit of the philistine landlord Mr Brouček (the name means ‘Mr Beetle’) to the moon, where he encounters pretentious adherents to the Aestheticist, or Art for Art’s Sake, movement. In the second part the time traveller is whisked away to the patriotic Hussite wars of the 15th century, where again the humour, such as it is, derives from an ironic juxtaposition (this time the Czech patriots and the decidedly unheroic Brouček).
