Perhaps the most disappointing cancellation of the lockdown periods was Claus Guths new Royal Opera production of Janaceks Jenufa already well advanced in the rehearsal rooms last March with the mouthwatering cast of Asmik Grigorian, her RO debut, and Karita Mattila in the leading female roles of Jenufa and her stepmother, Kostelnicka Buryova.

Compensation of sorts came last weekend, when Simon Rattle raised his baton at Berlins Staatsoper Daniel Barenboims opera house to conduct Damiano Michielettos new production, socially distanced on stage and closed to the public, with the Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund as the secretly pregnant heroine, and Evelyn Herlitzius as the infanticidal matriarch who kills her stepdaughters baby to protect her own and Jenufas reputation.

The opera, premiered in

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Janacek's Jenufa: an anatomy of anguish | Culture | The Sunday Times - The Times