Recordings of Jenůfa now range from the pioneering set conducted by his biographer and critic Jaroslav Vogel to sets from conductors including Bohumír Gregor, Charles Mackerras (still the outstanding choice), Andrew Davis, Ivor Bolton, Bernard Haitink, František Jílek and others, sung in Czech, German and English. When it comes to different versions (Brno 1904, Prague 1916, more recent reconstructions of one of Janáček’s versions of his score and demolition of the one by the initially hostile Karel Kovařovic), confusion is beyond summary.

This new recording is of the 1908 score, edited by Mackerras and John Tyrrell. One matter that counts strongly is the inclusion of the aria sung by the domineering old Kostelnička, early in the opera, in which she warns Jenůfa from her own example about the consequences of an impetuous marriage to a handsome wastrel. It was cut by Janáček (and is cut by both Vogel and Gregor), but nowadays is usually restored. The aria supports the old woman’s moral authority with her experience of human suffering, and is magnificently delivered here, as is all the character’s anguish and eventual humiliation and contrition, by Iris Vermillion. It serves as reminder of the character’s centrality in an opera whose Czech title means, roughly, ‘Her Stepdaughter’.

Vermillion dominates the opera, but she has in Gal James a beautiful Jenůfa, appealing in her predicament, caught painfully between her rival suitors, capable of a full lyrical outburst at the end. Taylan Reinhard delivers an impassioned teva; Aleš Briscein is a Laca who grows in stature to establish his right to Jenůfa’s affections. There is a lively Karolka from Tatjana Miyus, and a stuffy old Grandmother from Dunja Vejzovic´. Dirk Kaftan clearly admires a score which he sometimes rather over-emphasises, as if it still has a way to go to being absorbed into his being. He is not helped by a recording which, in this live performance, can distort balance between the enthusiastic chorus and soloists or orchestra. It is regrettable not to have an English text alongside parallel Czech and German in the booklet.