- Julietta
Martinu operas
"Julietta" is an
opera byBohuslav Martinů , who also wrote thelibretto , which is based on the play "Juliette, ou La clé des songes (Juliette, or The Key of Dreams)" by the French authorGeorges Neveux . The opera received its first performance at the National Theatre,Prague on16 March ,1938 , withVáclav Talich conducting. The UK premiere was in April 1978 in London by the New Opera Company, in an English translation. [Crichton, Ronald, "First Performances: "Julietta" (June 1978). "Tempo" (New Ser.), 125: pp. 26-27.]Hindle and Godsil have published a psychoanalytical study of the opera and analysed the work in the context of Martinů's life. [cite journal | url=http://ijpa.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,11,15;journal,8,41;linkingpublicationresults,1:101926,1; |last=Debbie Hindle |first=Susie Godsil | title=The song of the siren: Some thoughts on idealization and creativity in Martinů's "Julietta" | journal=International Journal of Psychoanalysis | volume=87 | issue=4 | pages=1087–1102 | date=2006 | accessdate=2007-11-29 | doi=10.1516/BB2H-BQXY-GEWW-88YW]
ynopsis
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.
Recording
* Supraphon SU 3626-2 612: Antonín Zlesák, Zdeněk Otava, Ivo Žídek, Maria Tauberová; Orchestra and Chorus of the Prague National Theatre; Jaroslav Krombholc, conductor
References
ource
*"Viking Opera Guide" ed. Holden (Viking, 1993)
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