Finally, I have arrived in Brno for the Janacek Festival, 24 hours later than scheduled thanks to a strike by Italian rail staff, which following a series of cancellations and delays left me stranded and seeking a hotel room in Vienna at half-past midnight.

Brno is a small picturesque Czech city set close to the Austrian border which each year celebrates its most famous son, Leos Janacek, in a festival dedicated to his music. This year, the festival is performing, among other musical works, three of his operas: “Osud,” “Jenufa” and “The Cunning Little Vixen” as well as his song cycle “The Diary of One who Disappeared,” which is often performed as an opera, such is its dramatic potential.

On arrival, I had an interview scheduled with the soprano Alžbēta Poláčková who was playing the role of Mila Válková in the evening’s opera “Osud,” in which, among many other things, she discussed her voice, and the effect she would like it to have on the audience. Suffice to say that on the evidence of the evening’s performance she understated its qualities.

“Osud” is not considered one of Janacek’s best operas. Although he wrote it after he had achieved success with “Jenufa” it has never been able to establish itself. However, the director Robert Carsen and conductor Marko Ivanovic energetically engaged with work’s challenges, the result of which can be read in the review which will appear shortly.