Opera North

Osud

Janácek’s rarely performed opera Osud tells the story of a composer, Živný, who has written an autobiographical opera about his obsessive, tormented love for Míla, with whom he has a young son. The last act is unfinished, however: the opera cannot be concluded until it has been lived.

Despite its concision, Osud has an expansive lyricism that flowers more readily than in Janácek’s terser late operas, while evoking the cadence and rhythm of Czech speech. The score glows with what his biographer John Tyrrell describes as ‘some of his most incandescent music’.

Cavalleria Rusticana

The craze for the short and sharp thrills of grittily intense verismo opera was launched by Mascagni’s wildly popular Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry), which shares both its shock value and its core themes of betrayal, jealousy and vengeance with Pagliacci, the opera it is most often paired with.

Set at Easter, Cavalleria rusticana tells the tale of Turiddù, a soldier, who has returned from the army to find his lover, Lola, has married another man. In consolation, he has seduced Santuzza, leaving her desperate, while still nurturing his obsessive desire for Lola.