Julietta

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Operas by Bohuslav Martinů
Comedy on the Bridge (1937) Alexandre bis (1937) Julietta (1938) The Marriage (opera) (1953) What Men Live By (1953) The Marriage (1953) Mirandolina (1959) Ariane (1961) The Greek Passion (1961)
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Julietta is an opera by Bohuslav Martinů, who also wrote the libretto, which is based on the play Juliette, ou La clé des songes (Juliette, or The Key of Dreams) by the French author Georges Neveux. The opera received its first performance at the National Theatre, Prague on 16 March 1938, with Václav Talich conducting. The UK premiere was in April 1978 in London by the New Opera Company, in an English translation.^[1]

Hindle and Godsil have published a psychoanalytical study of the opera and analysed the work in the context of Martinů's life.^[2]

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Recording 3 References 4 Source

[edit] Synopsis

Michel is a traveling salesman who stumbles across a seaside city where none of the residents remember their past. Michel is trying to find a woman whose voice he once heard in the wilderness. After his arrival in the town, he is elected to lead the town. He eventually does find the woman, named Julietta. However, it is not clear whether she is real or a product of his imagination. Eventually, Michel is provoked into shooting Julietta, but because of the ambiguity of the situation, it is not certain if she is dead. Later, at the "Central Office of Dreams", Michel is warned that if he does not wake up to escape the dream, he will be imprisoned in the dream-world forever. At the end of the opera, where the residents again go about their business oblivious to immediate past events, Michel remains in the dream-world.

[edit] Recording

• Supraphon SU 3626-2 612: Antonín Zlesák, Zdeněk Otava, Ivo Žídek, Maria Tauberová; Orchestar and Chorus of the Prague National Theatre; Jaroslav Krombholc, conductor

[edit] References

[edit] Source

• Viking Opera Guide ed. Holden (Viking, 1993)