Love makes a life and destroys a family

The ENO presents an updated version of Leos Janacek's 1904 seminal opera, moving the action forward to the 20th-century Soviet Eastern Bloc. Familial honour is at stake, as a well-meaning woman takes terrible action to ensure her step-daughter's future. The composer wrote the opera as a tribute to his dead daughter. American soprano Laura Wilde takes on the role of Jenufa in this new debut.

What is the story?

Jenufa is a pregnant, unmarried woman at the center of a love triangle, who is desperately in love with a vain and brash drunkard. Meanwhile, an industrial worker who has fallen in love with her discovers her secret and slashes her face in a jealous rage. When the baby is born, the brash father does not want to know, seeing that Jenufa is no longer beautiful, but she doesn't care; her love for the baby outweighs everything else. Her concerned stepmother is desperate to marry her off for security, and realising that the baby is an obstacle to this, takes it away during the night.

Jenufa is due to be married to the man who disfigured her, until the discovery of the baby's body is revealed. With everybody accusing her of murder, will the stepmother come forward to confess her crime and motives?