Janáček worked on this opera from February 1927 to 8 June 1928, knowing that it would be his last, and for it he broke away from the habit he had developed of creating characters modeled on his love interestKamila Stösslová, although the themes of loneliness and isolation can clearly be seen as a response to her indifference to his feelings. There is only one female character, and the setting, a Siberian prison, presents a large ensemble cast instead of one or several prominent leads. There is no narrative to the work as a whole, but individual characters narrate episodes in their lives, and there is a play-within-a-play in act 2. From the House of the Dead was virtually finished when Janáček died. Two of his students, believing the orchestration was incomplete, "filled out" large portions of the score and adapted the ending to be more optimistic in tone. In addition to the work of Břetislav Bakala and Osvald Chlubna, made changes to the text and sequence of events in the opera. Decades later, a version closer to the composer's intentions superseded that version, and it is the one most often heard today. Some productions, however, still use the earlier version's ending to lessen the bleakness of the story. The opera requires a vast orchestra, including chains as a percussion instrument to evoke the sound of the prisoners. The words of prisoners' songs from the Dostoevsky novel are used in full or in part by Janáček. An arrangement in the form of a suite of the opera by conductor František Jílek has been performed by Brno Philharmonic.
Roles
Synopsis
Act 1
A Siberian prison camp on a winter morning The prisoners get up, two get into a dispute, as the rumour is spread that a nobleman will be the new arrival. He is Alexandr Petrovitch Goryantchikov, a political prisoner. The prison governor interrogates him and orders him to be flogged. The prisoners have found a wounded eagle and tease the bird until the guards order them to their work. The prisoners lament their fate ; one of them, Skuratov, recalls his previous life in Moscow. Another, Luka Kuzmitch, tells how he incited a rebellion and killed an officer in his first prison camp. Just as he describes his own flogging, Goryantchikov is dragged in, half dead.
Act 2
Six months later, at the Irtysh river Goryantchikov has befriended the young tartar Alyeya, asks him about his family and offers to teach him to read and write. The prisoners finish work as a holiday begins and a priest blesses the food and the river. Skuratov tells his story: He loved a German girl, Luisa, but when she was to be married to an old relative, Skuratov shot the groom. For the holiday, the prisoners stage a play about Don Juan and Kedril and the pantomime about a beautiful, but unfaithful miller's wife. After the play, a prisoner tries to provoke Goryantchikov, as the nobleman has the means to drink tea even in prison. Alyeya gets injured.
Act 3
The prison hospital Goryantchikov looks after Alyeya, who is happy that he now knows how to read and write. Luka lies dying of tuberculosis and insults Tchekunov for his servile mannerism towards Goryantchikov. Shapkin tells the story of his arrest as a vagrant and how an officer pulled his ear. Skuratov has gone mad. During the night, Shishkov tells his story, interrupted by the impatient questions of Tcherevin. A rich merchant had a daughter, Akulka, whom a friend of Shishkov's, one Filka Morozov, claimed to have dishonoured. She was married to Shishkov who found out that she was a virgin. When he discovered that she still loved Filka, Shishkov killed her. Just then, Luka dies and Shishkov recognises him as Filka. A guard fetches Goryantchikov. Second scene. A drunk prison governor apologises to Goryantchikov for the whipping and tells him that he has been pardoned and is free. The prisoners release the healed eagle before the guard orders them back to work.
Supraphon, 1979: Richard Novák, Vilém Přibyl, Jaroslav Horácek, Ivo Žídek, Jaroslav Soucek; Czech Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra; Václav Neumann, conductor
