To the Moon and back with Brouček

Updated: Nov 1

Grange Park presents the artistic and intellectual avant-garde of the Moon

In Janáček’s words, Brouček is 'just an ordinary man; he swears at the world and spends his life with a jug of beer in his hand. There is no use for him in the world. And you ask: “Why would you choose such a man for the opera then?” So that he may be an abomination to all, for mockery and a warning!' Janáček declared that this comedy was a vehicle for serious social commentary, as was the Czech novel that inspired it. He went on, 'The Russians also had such a “soft” man; his name was Oblomov. In fact, every other Russian was an Oblomov – and how they ended! A terrible revolution, now rivers of blood are cleaning it. That’s why I’m putting Brouček on display – as a warning. There are also more than enough of Broučeks here everywhere! All they think about are their stomachs. So my dear little Brouček gets drunk again, falls asleep somewhere in Hradčany and dreams: He flies to the Moon! He falls down there. Oh, the horror! The people there are satiated only by the scent of flowers. They only let Brouček sniff the flowers. And now there’s a Moonwoman falling in love with him! No blood, body like a stick!'

This year's Janáček Brno 2024 International Festival - Scottish tenor Nicky Spence will play Mr Broucek.

Well that's basically the plot of the first part, and allegedly the purpose of this increasingly popular late opera from our composer - The Excursions of Mr. Brouček to the Moon and to the 15th Century.

Full Synopsis here.

If the 'warning' was intended, it was a failure. There's little sign that the opera was taken then or now as a warning rather than a delightful spoof on the lives of the Czech bourgeois 'everyman'. ('Brouček' translates as 'Beetle'.) But like the popular novellas by the poet Svatopluk Čech which provided the stories, this opera offers a wry and very focused social commentary, a bit too close to home to be lightly dismissed. 'When in drunken reveries, he embarks on two fantastical journeys – the first to the moon, where he encounters a society built entirely on aesthetic principles, the second back in time to 1420, when the Czechs won a famous military victory against crusaders of the Holy Roman Empire, during which he is forced to confront the narrowness of his own world view.' More here.

Here's the summary from Grange Park Opera, whose production we're watching on YouTube. As illustrated below. (If you can't work out a consistent story, that's intended.)

Intellectual meeting on the Moon in Grange Park production

'In Janáček’s own words “Brouček gripes at the whole world and drowns his life in a glass of beer. I expose him as a warning, a laughing stock. In the orchestra is the gossamer web of a dream, the mystery of a lunar landscape and gloominess of long-past ages. I hope I have plucked out a smile of agreement from the audience”.

Brouček has a humdrum life and longs to escape all those people who bother him. First stop is the Moon, followed by a trip to the 15th century. Alas, he can’t get away from those irritating people, and ends where he started: Prague.'

In the second excursion. Brouček dips deeper into Czech history. Yes, it helps to know the saga of the Czech resistance to the Holy Roman Empire, but it's not necessary.

The music

Don't underestimate this spoofy opera - it's not only an examination of the Czech "everyman" and a satire on Czech nationalism, but also, like all of his work, a musical excursion. "The score contains some unmistakably top-drawer Janácek, raptly lyrical in the lunar trip, martially assertive in the 15th-century one." Guardian review of ENO production, 2009. 'The first excursion in particular is packed with vivid invention; the second dips deeper into wells of Czech history. Gramophone review here.

Janáček ...complemented his satire to perfection with music in a dance rhythm and the use of unusual instruments such as the glass harmonica or bagpipes. While the first part of the opera, the trip to the Moon, aimed its blistering humour at Prague critics, intellectuals and artists, the second half, set in the Hussite period, took aim at the unpleasant qualities of the Czech nation in general. More here from the Janacek festival. So listen for the sounds of these mocked individuals and social groups.

More about the sounds in Janáček's music? Max Brod (1884–1968) wrote this moving essay/obituary of his friend Leoš Janáček at his death in 1928. It ends with an account of the playing at the funeral of the last scene from The Cunning Little Vixen, sad and quiet.... “And yet it is beautiful, how the forest nourishes this swarm – that is eternal youth!"

The opera that stayed home

The Excursions of Mr. Brouček to the Moon and to the 15th Century was his fifth opera, premiered 1920. Significantly, this wildly satirical opera, deriding "ordinary" Czech people and spoofing hallowed history, was the only one of his works that premiered in Prague rather than Brno. But getting beyond Prague proved more challenging than getting to the moon and the 15th century.

The story of the making of the opera - libretto and music - is in detail here. And the result of the satire? Notes on a recent recording concluded: 'Janáček's sophisticated humor is applied with a gentle touch, his satire is tempered with compassion, and his irony encourages self-reflection. The tone of the work is surprisingly close to the tolerant modern view of Mr. Brouček's character, of artists isolated from the normal world and our conception of the moral strength of our forefathers.'