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Leoš Janáček operas
• Jenůfa (1904)

“Jenůfa” by Leoš Janáček

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Její pastorkyňa, Her Stepdaughter, Енуфа
Jenůfa: Side-by-Side Czech–English Opera Libretto
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Premiere / date of written: 24 January 1904

Jenůfa is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček, based on the play Její pastorkyňa (Her Stepdaughter) by Gabriela Preissová. Janáček composed the opera between 1896 and 1902, setting the text in prose rather than using a traditional verse libretto. It was first performed at the National Theatre in Brno on January 21, 1904.


The story takes place in a Moravian village and centers on Jenůfa, a young woman expecting a child by Števa, a man who is unwilling to marry her. Her stepmother, the Kostelnička, tries desperately to protect Jenůfa from the disgrace that an unmarried mother would face in their community. What begins as an attempt to save her reputation leads to a terrible decision and its consequences.


The world of Jenůfa is small and closely knit, where family conflicts unfold under the constant pressure of neighbors, tradition, and social judgment. Janáček’s music is unusually direct and closely connected to the rhythms of Czech speech, giving much of the drama an immediate, almost conversational quality.


Although the story is often dark, Jenůfa is not simply a tragedy. Its final scenes turn toward confession, forgiveness, and the possibility of beginning again.

Libretti

Czech–English side-by-side translation

# Language Authors
1 Czech Leoš Janáček
2 English

original libretto
side-by-side of the original libretto

Notes on the Libretto

Janáček fashioned the libretto of Jenůfa from Gabriela Preissová’s prose drama Její pastorkyňa, and the spoken character of that source remains strongly present. The text often moves in short phrases, repetitions, interruptions, and regional forms rather than in conventional operatic verse. In preparing the Czech–English side-by-side text, forms such as včil, lúbím, děvčica, and chlapčok were therefore preserved rather than silently regularized into modern standard Czech.


Comparison of libretto and score sources also revealed an important editorial problem: some prose versions omit repetitions or stage directions that belong to Janáček’s musical setting. Where the score clearly supports such material, the repetitions have been retained. In several places, apparently minor discrepancies proved significant—for example, restoring Toť zrovna jde!... before Laca’s entrance, or recovering the complete phrase Dosti smrtelného ponížení a muk vás čeká! rather than leaving the sentence grammatically and dramatically incomplete.


The Czech also contains expressions that resist literal English. Potěš tě Pánbůh, for instance, is not simply a greeting: it is a formula of consolation, best understood as “May God comfort you.” Such phrases are small, but they reveal how closely the language of Jenůfa belongs to its world of family, village custom, religion, and spoken Moravian life.

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Similar Theme

  • Cavalleria rusticana (1890) — Pietro Mascagni Both take place in close-knit communities where sex, jealousy and reputation have serious consequences. In Jenůfa, as in Cavalleria rusticana, private trouble quickly becomes everybody's business.
  • Pagliacci (1892) — Ruggero Leoncavallo Both bring jealousy and violence into an ordinary working community rather than a royal court or legendary world. Jenůfa, however, finds a possibility of forgiveness after the tragedy.
  • Madama Butterfly (1904) — Giacomo Puccini Jenůfa and Cio-Cio-San are young mothers abandoned by men who refuse to take responsibility. What happens to the child, however, takes the two stories in very different directions.
  • La traviata (1853) — Giuseppe Verdi Both show how strongly a woman's private life can be controlled by other people's ideas of respectability. Jenůfa's village is very different from Violetta's Paris, but the social pressure is just as real.

Good Next Choice

  • Rigoletto (1851) — Giuseppe Verdi In both operas, an older guardian is desperate to protect a young woman from disgrace and suffering. Those attempts at protection instead help bring about the catastrophe.

Contrasting Companion

  • Medea (1797) — Luigi Cherubini Both stories lead to the murder of a child after the father rejects the mother. The crucial difference is that Jenůfa does not kill her baby—the Kostelnička makes that terrible decision for her.
  • Norma (1831) — Vincenzo Bellini Both operas involve a secret mother, an unreliable father and the threat of infanticide. Norma cannot bring herself to kill her children; in Jenůfa, the Kostelnička crosses that line.

Tags

Style / Movement: Modernist
Structure: Full-length Through-composed
Source: Based on literature Based on a play
Theme: Tragic love
Discovery: Beginner-friendly
Setting: 19th-century setting
Place: Czech Republic

Related operas

Also in Czech

  • Rusalka (1901) — Antonín Dvořák

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Printed Editions

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2026 Jenůfa: Side-by-Side Czech–English Opera Libretto DM’s Opera Series Amazon.com

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