BLOOD WEDDING.(Opera Review)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 03-FEB-03

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COPYRIGHT 2003 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

A few minutes before the end of Leos Janacek's "Jenufa," now at the Metropolitan Opera, the orchestra unleashes a long-drawn-out, floor-trembling storm of sound, in the elemental key of C. A pause follows, during which the audience may be tempted to make a noise of its own, particularly when a singer of the magnitude of Karita Mattila has been working at the height of her art. But the hall is silent; even those who do not know the opera feel that something remains to be said. Over pulsing chords, which have the rhythm of heavy breathing, violins and soprano begin to sing an entirely new melody, in the new key of B-flat--a long, sustained note, followed by a quickly shaking figure, with a shadow of C below. The music has the motion of a bird in flight: it glides, beats its wings, dips down, and soars again into blue heaven. Then another new theme surfaces,...

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