But Barry, the points I brought up were all analytical and not evaluative. I said nothing about whether "Broucek" is nice or not as a work and whether we should like it or not. That's a different matter entirely. For instance, even if about one hundred years ago the second act was written and realized as a nationalist paean or something for the Czech people, it will very likely deter no one from liking it on political grounds. And observing this historically patriotic character of the work is of course not tantamount to saying that it contains no beautiful music. The same is true about "Broucek's" position in Janacek's total output, or the role of folk elements in it, and everything else that we discussed: those are just observations based on analysis of the work and say nothing about the pleasurable experiences it may offer to many. Just the same way as very few people have found compelling political reason not to enjoy, say, "Meistersinger." And we don't have to be 19th-century German nationalists to appreciate the accomplishments of this opera, either. Or turn-of-the-century Fennomans to be moved by Sibelius's tone poems inspired by and serving this Finnish nationalist movement.
So sure, go ahead and enjoy it, as do I from time to time (but not very frequently since there is a lot of competition on my shelf which in my view is superior in so many ways, and much of it from Janacek himself, too), but that's not the same as taking a position on the analytical points I brought up (by the way those points are not original by me but simply reiterations of what is commonly known about this opera or alternatively kind of open for anyone to see).
To sum up, you can't counter those points I made by simply saying that "But I still like it...". What you can do, if you want, is to show that the observations made were incorrect, but, frankly, I don't think there are many who'd want to push the point.
And you are of course right in that between the two works, "Jenufa" is the one clearly closer to the themes and character of Czech village opera, to whose conventions it tries to directly appeal in so many ways (incl. the obviously more verismo style, compared to the "Broucek").
So I'm sorry if this sounds like one of those "But that's not what I said!" type of objections that you dislike, but, really, I never did say whether or not I or anyone should "like" "Broucek." That's beside the whole point.
-PT
