Jejàpastorkyà Âa (Her Stepdaughter; commonly known as Jenà ¯fa ) is an opera in three acts by Leoà ¡ JanáÃÂek to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the play Jejàpastorkyà Âa by Gabriela Preissová. It was first performed at the National Theatre, Brno on 21 January 1904. Composed between 1896 and 1902, it is among the first operas written in prose.
The first of JanáÃÂek's operas in which his distinctive voice can clearly be heard, it is a grim story of infanticide and redemption. Like the playwright's original work, it is known for its unsentimental realism. While today it is heard in the composer's original version, Jenà ¯fas early popularity was due to a revised version by Karel Kovaà Âovic, altering what was considered its eccentric style and orchestration. Thus altered, it was well-received, first in Prague, and particularly after its Vienna première also worldwide. More than 70 years passed before audiences again heard it in JanáÃÂek's original version.
JanáÃÂek wrote an overture to the opera, but decided not to use it. It was partly based on a song called à ½Ã¡rlivec (The jealous man). It is now performed as a concert piece under the title à ½Ã¡rlivost (Jealousy), JW 6/10.
The composer dedicated the work to the memory of his daughter Olga (d. 1903), as he did his choral composition the Elegy on the Death of Daughter Olga.
The plot depends on a tangled set of village relationships. Before the opera begins, the mill-owner Grandmother Buryja had two sons. The elder married the widow of a man named Klemeà Â, became stepfather to her son Laca, and had a son of his own with her, à  teva. The younger married twice, and had a daughter, Jenà ¯fa, with his first wife. When the opera opens, Grandmother Buryja's sons and their wives have died, except for the KostelniÃÂka (the sacristan or sextoness of the village church), the younger son's second wife and Jenà ¯fa's stepmother. Custom dictates that à  teva alone, as the elder son's only child, will inherit the mill, leaving his half-brother Laca and cousin Jenà ¯fa to earn their livings.
Jenà ¯fa, Laca, and Grandmother Buryja wait for à  teva to return home. Jenà ¯fa, in love with à  teva and secretly pregnant with his child, worries that he may have been drafted into the army. Laca, in love with Jenà ¯fa, expresses bitterness against his half-brother's favored position at home. As he complains he plays with a knife and, finding it blunt, gives it to the mill foreman to be sharpened.
The foreman informs the family that à  teva has not been drafted, to Jenà ¯fa's relief and Laca's increased frustration. The others leave, and Jenà ¯fa waits to greet à  teva. He appears with a group of soldiers, drunk and boasting of his prowess with the girls. He calls for music and drags the miserable Jenà ¯fa into dancing with him.
The KostelniÃÂka steps into this rowdy scene, silences the musicians and, shocked by à  teva's behavior, forbids him to marry Jenà ¯fa until he can stay sober for one full year. The soldiers and the family leave à  teva and Jenà ¯fa alone, and she begs him to love her, but he, unaware of her pregnancy, gives her casual answers and leaves.
Laca returns, as bitter as ever. He attempts to goad Jenà ¯fa into criticizing à  teva, but she takes her lover's side despite everything. Laca rages that à  teva would never even look at her if it weren't for her rosy cheeks, then slashes her across the cheek with his knife.
Months later, it is winter. The baby has been born, but à  teva has not yet come to visit his child. Jenà ¯fa's face is still disfigured, but she is happy in her love for the baby. While Jenà ¯fa sleeps, the KostelniÃÂka summons à  teva and demands that he take responsibility. He answers that while he will provide money in secret, no one must know the baby is his. His love for Jenà ¯fa died when Laca spoiled her beauty, and he is now engaged to marry Karolka, the mayor's pretty daughter.
à  teva leaves, and Laca enters. He still doesn't know the truth about the baby, and when the KostelniÃÂka tells him, his first reaction is disgust at the thought of taking à  teva's child under his wing. Fearful that Jenà ¯fa will be left with no one to marry, KostelniÃÂka hastily lies that the baby is dead. Laca leaves, and the KostelniÃÂka is faced with the necessity of making the lie true. She wraps the baby in a shawl and leaves the house.
Jenà ¯fa wakes up and says a prayer for her child's future, but the KostelniÃÂka, returning, tells her that the baby died while she slept. Laca appears and comforts Jenà ¯fa gently, asking that they spend the rest of their lives together. Seeing the tenderness of the couple, the KostelniÃÂka tries to convince herself that she has acted for the best.
It is now spring, and Laca and Jenà ¯fa's wedding day. All seems right again, except that the KostelniÃÂka is a nervous wreck. à  teva and Karolka visit, and a chorus of village girls sings a wedding song. Just then, screams are heard. The body of the baby has been discovered in the mill-stream under the melting ice. Jenà ¯fa immediately says that the baby is hers, and in her grief appears guilty of the murder. The village is ready to exact immediate justice against Jenà ¯fa, but the KostelniÃÂka calms them and says that the crime is hers. Hearing the whole story, Jenà ¯fa forgives her stepmother. The crowd takes the KostelniÃÂka off to jail. Jenà ¯fa and Laca are left alone. Jenà ¯fa asks Laca to leave her, as she cannot expect him to marry her now. He replies that he will not leave her, and that he wishes to spend the rest of his life with her.
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