The Excursions of Mr. Brouček is a rather odd opera by Leoš Janáček.  It’s currently being streamed on the Opera Vision Youtube channel in a production at the National Theatre Brno directed by Robert Carsen.

Basically Janáček took the character and the storyline from two novels by Svatopluk Čech.  He seems to be trying to make Brouček the embodiment of everything he hated in Czech society.  He’s a drunken petit-bourgeois cowardly boor; a landlord who spends his time drinking and, ineffectually, womanising.  In his drunken stupor he has two dreams.  In the first he is transported to the Moon where he meets the inhabitants who initially treat him with great reverence but end up disgusted by his coarse habits; especially meat eating.  In the second he’s transported back to the Hussite rebellion in Prague in 1420 where he is initially taken for a spy but escapes, only to demonstrate extreme cowardice and be sentenced to be burnt in a beer barrel.  Of course it’s just a dream so he ends up back in the inn where it all started.  Janáček uses the device of taking characters from the inn scenes and reusing them in the dreams so the barmaid Málinka, for example, ends up as the priestess Etherea on the Moon and as daughter of the Hussite leader.  All the other principal characters get essentially the same treatment.

Carsen’s concept, in an attempt to make this more relevant to modern audiences who may not be all that clued up on 15th century Czech history, is to set both of the dreams in 1968/69; a period which saw the first Moon landing, the Summer of Love, the Prague Spring and subsequent Warsaw Pact invasion and Czechoslovakia beating the USSR in the World Hockey Championships.  All of these things figure in the production.

So the Moon is inhabited by hippies who are celebrating Moonstock where the the scent of flowers, and much else besides, is inhaled in quantity.  There are also moon maidens and Málinka’s suitor Mazal who appears as an astronaut before transforming into some sort of poet who debates aesthetics with the character who was Málinka’s father but is now busy explaining that the highest status on the Moon goes to people who are talentless but support the arts financially!  We also meet most of the popular music acts of the 1960s among other things.

For the second dream we are in Prague in 1968/69.  The inhabitants are preparing armed resistance to the Russians.  In the fighting the Málinka character’s father is killed but revenge is exacted on the ice with a ballet of victorious Czech hockey players.  Grainy black and white videos are projected between scenes and, especially in the Prague scenes, behind the action.  There’s classic footage of the Apollo mission and, less comfortably, there’s footage of Dubcek, crowds in the street, Soviet tanks, posters of Jan Palach and the actual hockey game.  There’s no lack of visual interest.

It’s also a pretty good score and very Janáček.  I’m not sure though that either the music or Carsen’s imaginative reimagining of the story really quite redeem a rather silly and mean spirited story.  It’s not helped that the libretto in the Prague scenes is quite historically specific to the events of 1420 and the theological differences between the Hussites and the Roman Church which really don’t map to the events of the Prague Spring except in a crudely nationalist way.

It gets a good performance though.  Toby Spence is an excellent Brouček.  He’s just broadly comic enough without going to the point where he forfeits all sympathy.  The supporting cast seem to be drawn from the house ensemble (or are at least Czech) and they are consistently good.  I thought in particular Doubravka Novotná and Daniel Matoušek, as the young lovers in their various avatars, were quite charming.  They are both fine young singers who can also act and move.  The house orchestra and chorus and conductor Marko Ivanović sound like they perform a lot of Janáček!

It’s an interesting video.  It’s 720p with good stereo sound which is all pretty decent but the grainy Black and White videos are a bit indistinct.  The interval between acts is occupied by a rather good “Making of” documentary which features Spence being amusing, Carsen and Ivanoviċ being erudite and Novotná and Matoušek being cute.

This video is definitely worth a look for anyone who enjoys Janáček’s operas, even if it’s not his finest.  I’m not sure how long this video will be available on-line.  Certainly to the end of this month but possibly longer.