From the House of the Dead is an opera in three acts by the Czech composer Leos Janacek (see Janacek, Leos ). It uses a libretto (text) in Czech by the composer, based on the 1862 novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. The opera received its first performance at Brno, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), on April 12, 1930, two years after Janacek’s death.
The opera depicts scenes of life in a prison camp in Siberia. Goryanshikov (baritone), a political prisoner, arrives at the camp and immediately angers the camp commandant (baritone). Luka (tenor) tells the inmates a story, but most of them are forced to go off to work. Only a handful remain to hear his tale.
The action moves forward a year. Goryanshikov is teaching Alyeya (soprano) to read. Another inmate, Skeratov (tenor), tells how he shot a rival for a young woman’s love. The prisoners put on two plays to celebrate Easter, and the townsfolk turn up to watch. Alyeya gets into a fight with another prisoner and is hurt. Goryanshikov visits her in the prison hospital. Among other patients, he finds Luka, who soon dies. Learning that the commandant has pardoned him, Goryanshikov prepares to leave the camp. As he departs, the other inmates release a caged eagle, symbolizing the inability of the authorities to suppress the human spirit.
