There’s nothing quite like a mother’s love, but how far would you go to protect your child? Our Spring Season features Janáček’s harrowing opera, Jenůfa, which centralises a mother’s love and the extremes to which she goes to keep her from harm. With Mother’s Day upon us, what better time to dive into the portrayal of Kostelnička Buryjovka, from her innocent acts of maternal love to the downright horrifying ones.
Warning: Spoilers ahead
At the beginning of the opera, Kostelnička is portrayed as a strong and caring mother who keeps the troublemakers from her daughter’s door. Števa, the father of Jenůfa’s unborn child, enters the scene in a drunken state, boasting loudly of his success with other women. In an effort to protect Jenůfa from his fumbling advances, Kostelnička steps in and authoritatively forbids Števa to marry Jenůfa until he can stay sober for one full year. Later, when Jenůfa’s pregnancy is revealed, Kostelnička is again motivated by her maternal love and keeps Jenůfa from shame by allowing her to raise the child in secret. She even steps in to demand that Števa takes responsibility for his child.
Kostelnička’s actions in the first half of the opera are nothing less than those of a caring and supportive mother. Yet, this opera’s reputation for intense drama and unexpected twists is not without reason. It is Janáček’s development of Kostelnička’s character that makes the opera’s drama comparable to that of a soap opera, as he transforms the innocent and protective instincts of a mother into a horrifying and sinister deed.
The second half of the opera sees Kostelnička reveal the birth of Jenůfa’s illegitimate child to Laca, a man who has always loved Jenůfa. Unfortunately, he is horrified at the thought of raising Števa's child as his own. When Kostelnička sees Laca’s reaction, she becomes concerned that no one will ever want to wed Jenůfa and decides to lie to Laca and tell him that the baby is now dead. Seeing no other way to keep this lie covered, she concludes that her only option is to turn the lie into a truth. Using her mother’s love as the driving force for her actions, Kostelnička heads out of the house with the aim of robbing Jenůfa of her own motherhood.
Ironically, it is Kostelnička’s love for her child that causes her inevitable downfall. The opera ends when the baby’s body is discovered under the melting ice. As the outraged villagers direct the blame at Jenůfa, who confesses that the baby is hers, Kostelnička’s final act of motherly love and protection is confession of the crime. Are Kostelnička’s actions justified? Have her actions stemmed from a place of maternal love? Has she put Jenůfa’s needs above her own? Why not attend one of our performances of Janáček’s Jenůfa this Season and decide for yourself.