Janáček’s comedy can be a charmer on stage but it’s a devil to get your head around on disc. Based on satirical stories by Svatopluk Čech – who even puts in an appearance in Act II – Mr Brouček (or Mr Beetle in Czech) is a petty minded, puffed-up landlord with an insatiable appetite for beer and sausages. The first half propels our sozzled antihero on an imaginary flight to the moon where he proceeds to puncture the pretensions of the artsy-fartsy inhabitants. The second half deposits him in the thick of the 15th-century Hussite wars where, cowardly to the core, he singularly fails to cover himself in glory. Amid the fun and games, the conversational text flies by at a discombobulating rate of knots.
This recording takes pride of place in the catalogue thanks in part to Simon Rattle’s illuminating way with the music. Not only does he make it sing and dance – bagpipes and all – he brings out every quirk and colour of Janáček’s imaginative score. By giving the opera room to breathe, listeners have the best chance yet of appreciating the composer’s fertile wit and gift for musical storytelling.
Peter Hoare leads an outstanding cast in a performance so ripe you can almost smell the garlic on his breath. Aleš Briscein is peerless as an earthbound painter and a preening moon poet with Lucy Crowe radiant as a lunar goddess. The LSO play like fiends, and the live recording is beautifully balanced.
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