A Janacek Gem

From the House of the Dead (Deutsche Grammophon)
Leos Janacek’s last great opera–an intense adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s tragic novel about life and death in a Soviet gulag–was unlikely material for the Czech composer: although lacking the complex heroines of his earlier classics The Makropulos Case, Jenufa and Katya Kabanova, it also was the basis for some of Janacek’s most compelling, dramatic music. French director Patrice Chereau’s 2007 staging at Aix-en-Provence–with the orchestra splendidly conducted by Pierre Boulez–is a stirring tribute to the human spirit: together, these two French artists illuminate the power of this unlikely collaboration between Janacek and Dostoyevsky.
EXTRAS: Making-of featurette, including rehearsal footage.