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Bohuslav Jan Martinů was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He wrote 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. He became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and briefly studied under Czech composer and violinist Josef Suk. After leaving Czechoslovakia in 1923 for Paris, Martinů deliberately withdrew from the Romantic style in which he had been trained. During the 1920s he experimented with modern French stylistic developments, exemplified by his orchestral works Half-time and La Bagarre. He also adopted jazz idioms, for instance in his Kitchen Revue.
Béatrice et Bénédict is an opéra comique in two acts by French composer Hector Berlioz. Berlioz wrote the French libretto himself, based in general outline on a subplot in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
The Cunning Little Vixen, is a three-act Czech-language opera by Leoš Janáček completed in 1923 to a libretto the composer himself adapted from a novella by Rudolf Těsnohlídek.
Destiny is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer and Fedora Bartošová. Janáček began the work in 1903 and completed it in 1907. The inspiration for the opera came from a visit by Janáček in the summer of 1903, after the death of his daughter Olga, to the spa at Luhačovice. There, Janáček met Kamila Urválková, who had been the subject of an opera by Ludvík Čelanský, Kamila, where she felt that Čelanský had falsely depicted her personality. After learning that Janáček was a composer, Urválková persuaded Janáček to write another opera to counteract Čelanský's portrait of her.
Veselohra na mostě' is a radio opera in one act by Bohuslav Martinů to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the comedy by Václav Kliment Klicpera and composed in 1935 in Polička. It has later been staged successfully, in America and Czechoslovakia.
What Men Live By is an opera in one act by Bohuslav Martinů to an English libretto by the composer, based on Where Love Is, There God Is Also (1885) by Leo Tolstoy, though he chose to use the more universal title of a different Tolstoy story What Men Live By (1886). It was composed in 1951-1952 when the composer was living in the United States, and described by him as a 'pastoral-opera'.
Powder Her Face, Op. 14 (1995), is a chamber opera in two acts by the British composer Thomas Adès, with an English libretto by Philip Hensher. The opera is 100 minutes long. It was commissioned by the Almeida Opera, a part of London's Almeida Theatre, for performances at the Cheltenham Music Festival.
Julietta is an opera by Bohuslav Martinů, who also wrote the libretto, in French, based on the play Juliette ou la Clé des songes by the French author Georges Neveux. A libretto in Czech was later prepared for its premiere which took place at the Prague National Theatre on 16 March 1938. Julietta has become widely considered as Martinů's masterpiece.
The Greek Passion is an opera in four acts by Bohuslav Martinů. The English-language libretto, by the composer, is based on Jonathan Griffin's translation of the novel Christ Recrucified by Nikos Kazantzakis.
Ariane is a one-act opera by Bohuslav Martinů to a French libretto by the composer drawn from the second, third and fourth acts of the 1943 play Le Voyage de Thésée by Georges Neveux, who had supplied the text to the composer's earlier opera Julietta.
Faust is an opera by the German composer Louis Spohr. The libretto, by Joseph Karl Bernard, is based on the legend of Faust; it is not influenced by Goethe's Faust, though Faust, Part One had been published in 1808. Instead, Bernard's libretto draws mainly on Faust plays and poems by Friedrich Maximilian Klinger and Heinrich von Kleist. Spohr's Faust is an important work in the history of German Romantic opera.
The Mistress of the Inn, also translated as The Innkeeper Woman or Mirandolina, is a 1753 three-act comedy by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni centred around a coquette. The play has been regarded as his masterpiece, with Frederick Davies describing it as "Goldoni's Much Ado About Nothing".
Zanetto is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci. It received its first performance on 2 March 1896 at the Liceo Musicale Rossini in Pesaro. Only 40 minutes long and with cast of two singers, Zanetto was originally described by its composer as a scena lirica rather than an opera. It is set in the countryside near Florence during the Renaissance and tells the story of an encounter between a beautiful courtesan, Silvia, and a young wandering minstrel, Zanetto. The libretto was adapted from an Italian translation by Emilio Praga of François Coppée's play Le passant in which the young Sarah Bernhardt had won fame in the en travesti role of Zanetto.
Špalíček is a 1932 three-act folk ballet composed by Bohuslav Martinů. It premiered in 1933 in Prague with the subtitle "Ballet from folk games, customs, and fairytales - Ballet-revue". The title is taken from the folk-song collections hawked at fairs around Bohemia in the 1700s.
La locandiera is a 1980 Italian comedy film directed by Paolo Cavara, based on the Carlo Goldoni's three-act comedy The Mistress of the Inn.
The Innkeeper is a 1944 Italian historical comedy film directed by Luigi Chiarini and starring Luisa Ferida, Armando Falconi and Osvaldo Valenti. The film is an adaptation of Carlo Goldoni's 1753 play The Mistress of the Inn, one of a number of times the work has been turned into films. It belongs to the movies of the calligrafismo style.
Hry o Marii is a Czech-language opera cycle in four parts, by Bohuslav Martinů. The first performance was on 23 February 1935 at the National Theatre in Brno, with Antonín Balatka conducting, and stage direction by Rudolf Walter. It has been described as "a work of great originality, unlike any other opera" and "imbued with a strange mysticism".
Larmes de couteau, H. 169, Knife tears, Czech Slzy nože, is a one-act opera by Bohuslav Martinů to a French libretto by Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes. Composed in Paris in March 1928, it was not premiered until October 1969 at the State Theatre, Brno. The plot contains surreal and grotesque elements, and the music demonstrates the composer's then preoccupation with jazz both in orchestration and musical language.
Les trois souhaits, ou Les vicissitudes de la vie, H. 175, The three wishes, or life's tribulations, Czech Tři přání, is a film opera by Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů to a libretto by Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes. Composed mainly in Paris between autumn 1928 and May 1929, it was not premiered until June 1971 at the State Theatre, Brno. Grove describes the work as "one of the composer's most experimental works, blending film with stage action", and as "a mature drama" it is "comparable in theatrical impact to many of Martinů's later operas."
Divadlo za bránou is a 1936 stage work in three acts by Bohuslav Martinů with his own libretto; the first act is a ballet pantomime ; acts two and three are entitled opera buffa. The work is a mixture of theatrical styles: ballet and pantomime, opera buffa and folk dance and music from Czechoslovakia. He aimed to employ texts "once the vehicle of genuine folk theatre" to emphasize the theatrical principle rather than what he described as "a musical libretto" where music simply accompanies the nuances of the drama. The title refers to a place of entertainment outside the gates of a city, such as where a travelling troupe might perform.
References
- Notes
- ↑ Smaczny, Jan (2002). "Mirandolina". Grove Music Online. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O005761. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0 . Retrieved 2021-02-24.
- ↑ "Martinu: Mirandolina - Classics Today" . Retrieved 2021-02-24.
- ↑ 'David Pountney. In the Key of Dreams. Opera , Vol 60 No 6, June 2009, p660.
- ↑ Large, Brian. Martinů. Duckworth, London, 1975, p108.
- ↑ "Review". Gramophone. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
- 1 2 Page showing production details of Mirandolina at the Národního divadla archives site accessed 3 January 2015.
- ↑ Financial Times report on the UK premiere of Mirandolina. accessed 6 January 2015.
- Sources
