If Josef Bohuslav Foerster is remembered at all, he's remembered for his Fourth Symphony in C minor, an occasionally recorded Mahlerian masterpiece called "Easter Eve" that starts in the depths and ends on the heights. But most of the rest of his vast output -- Foerster lived to 92 and he composed until he was nearly 80 -- remains unrecorded terra incognito. Of his six operas, only Eva has kept a place in the repertoire and was even recorded back in 1982 with Frantisek Vajnar leading the
Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. This 2004 recording with
Jaroslav Kyzlink leading the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra is in nearly all ways an improvement on the earlier recording. Where Vajnar is committed,
Kyzlink is dedicated and where the
Prague Radio Symphony sounds like a second-rate Czech orchestra doing its best, the Krakow Philharmonic sounds like a first-rate Polish orchestra doing its best. Only the earlier all-Czech singers' slightly more confident diction beats the later, half-Czech singers' slightly tentative pronunciation, but both groups are clearly doing everything they can for music they could hardly be familiar with. As for the opera itself, if you liked Janácek's Jenufa but found it too harsh, too ecstatic, and too modern, Eva will be just the thing. Both works' plots are quite similar, but where Jenufa is unrelentingly harrowing, Eva is merely dramatically effective. Both works' melodies are rooted in Slavonic folk music, but where Jenufa heightens the primitive to the transcendent, Eva merely envelopes the primitive in the romantic. And where Jenufa is one of the triumphs of twentieth century opera, Eva is merely a transitional work between the nationalism of Smetana and the modernism of Janácek. Marco Polo's live sound is effective, but perhaps a little too cluttered.