Bohuslav Martinů on Music Theory Print

Alexandre bis

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History#

The opera was intended by Martinů, who was then living in Paris, for performance at the Paris World Exhibition of 1937. However, various delays (including the intervening World War II) prevented its performance during the composer’s lifetime. The opera’s first performance was given at the Nationaltheater Mannheim on 18 February 1964, when it was conducted by Georg Calder. Shortly afterwards it was given its first performance in Martinů’s native Czechoslovakia by the Janáček Theatre in Brno. It was first performed in America in October 2014 by Gotham Chamber Opera at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. The opera is subtitled “The Tragedy of a Man who Had His Beard Cut”, and the surrealist libretto is set in Paris about 1900. Although Martinů had asked Wurmser for a libretto including a singing cat, he compromised on Wurmser’s suggestion of a singing portrait, which acts as narrator to a tale of bourgeois infidelity.

Ariane (Martinů)

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Performance history#

Martinů composed Ariane in 1958 whilst working on his final opera, The Greek Passion – he described it in a letter to his family as ’taking a rest’ from the larger work. The composition took just over a month. The bravura style of the writing for Ariadne reflects Martinů’s admiration of Maria Callas. The opera is in a straightforward lyrical style with deliberate references to the operas of Monteverdi and other early composers. The year of composition had seen the premiere of his three Parables for orchestra, where the third movement includes “a mysterious figure from Neveux’s play, the drummer from Knossos is to be heard: it is his fate to announce weddings or funerals…”. Neveux not only wrote the libretto for Julietta premiered in 1938, but also that of Martinů’s 1953 unfinished opera Plainte contre inconnu. In 2022 a critical edition by Robert Simon, from the Bohuslav Martinů Institute in Prague, with the full orchestral score, was published by Bärenreiter, including the libretto, a foreword which puts a spotlight on correspondence at the time of its composition, a critical summary of the sources, and reproductions of parts of the autograph.

Bohuslav Martinů Complete Edition

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Complete edition#

Previously, many of Bohuslav Martinů’s compositions were either unaccounted for, available only as low-quality reproductions of autographs or manuscript copies, or provided with inadequate editions; published works contained errors and problematic performance solutions or were out of print or otherwise inaccessible. For this reason alone, a new critical edition is a much-needed enterprise in the fields of music philology, interpretation, and history, even if it were to provide no new findings or unpublished compositions. The BMCE is based on meticulous scholarly work, the research of primary sources, and the latest methodological standards and experience in music philology. It imparts new readings of the musical text and fresh findings on the genesis of the work. The international editorial board is furnished with experience from other complete editions published throughout Europe. The edition is intended for both practical use by musicians and theoretical study by musicologists and researchers. Using deep analyses of primary sources, it articulates the composer’s intentions in the truest possible form. Extensive forewords and critical reports also present the latest findings; besides the “last authorised version", alternative original readings are provided alongside interventions by musicians, publishers, and producers. Many autographs and prints of Martinů’s compositions are scattered throughout various countries, practically inaccessible, or missing completely. Many of his published works remain bound to publishing houses around the world and are thus largely unavailable. The Bohuslav Martinů Complete Edition has taken up the difficult task of bringing the oeuvre of this major composer of the twentieth century to the broader public for the first time in its complexity, including the publication of previously unknown or unfinished compositions and the composer’s sketch books. The BMCE is being published by Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel, through its Czech branch, Bärenreiter Praha (the successor to the Czech state music publisher Supraphon). A number of universities, music archives, and other institutions in both Europe and America have already subscribed to the edition. The first published volumes have already reached the concert stage – and Martinů’s works are thus being performed in new, critical versions. To name a few examples, Symphony No. 4 and The Epic of Gilgamesh were performed by the Czech Philharmonic under Jiří Bělohlávek, while The Spectre’s Bride was rendered by Jiří Rožeň and the Brno Philharmonic. The BMCE also aspires to disseminate lesser known, previously unpublished, or newly discovered compositions to the repertoires of world-famous ensembles. “This new complete edition - which I strongly recommend to music libraries and serious Martinů enthusiasts alike - should do much to bring his music in from the margins.” says the musicologist Nigel Simeone, an expert on twentieth-century music. The German critic Christoph Flamm reckons that the BMCE “fulfils the greatest expectations."

Comedy on the Bridge

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Performance history#

The first performance was a broadcast by Czech Radio, Prague on 18 March 1937. The first staged performance was at Hunter College, New York City on 28 May 1951, which the composer attended, where the work received an award for “best new opera” from the New York Music Critics Circle. The opera has received two productions at the National Theatre in Prague, in 1961 and 1975. Martinů arranged three sections of the opera (the instrumental opening, the song of Popelka, and the finale) into a “Little Suite” for chamber orchestra, including piano.

Divadlo za branou (opera)

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Background#

As well as Czech traditional song text, the work incorporates ideas from Molière’s Le Médecin volant and the mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau. The work is an example of the extension of Martinů’s operatic technique by using older theatrical traditions, here commedia dell’arte, but is the last of his operatic works to quote Czech folk melodies. The genre is not easy to define; after an act of pure dance, the two following combine song and dance in equal measure, and while using Czech folk music, the work both quotes it and makes variations on it. The original choreographer was Ivo Váňa Psota (1908–1952), a former member of the Ballets Russes, who also danced Pierrot. Commedia dell’arte, describes an Italian comedy of the French type with the characters Pierrot, Colombína and Harlequin. Katuška, the mayor, night-watchman and others are the Czech folklore features mixed with the Commedia dell’arte in the opera buffa, where Martinů’s plays with Czech and Moravian folklore plus neoclassical ideas. conducted by Albert Rosen. The Olomouc production came to Prague for the Martinů centenary celebrations in 1990, where 14 of his 16 operas were given. In 2019 the 1956 radio broadcast was restored and issued on two CDs.

Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano, and Timpani

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Recordings#

1951 Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Rafael Kubelik
1979 Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Stanislav Macura
1990 Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Mackerras
1994 Prague Radio Symphony, Charles Mackerras
1992 City of London Sinfonia - Richard Hickox
Recording of - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1j_K752Wac

Flute Sonata (Martinů)

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Movements#

The sonata is composed in three movements:

Description#

The outer movements are notably rhythmic, with the intervening adagio movement more melancholy and lyrical in nature. The inspiration for the theme of the third movement draws from Martinů’s experience nursing an injured whippoorwill back to health in Cape Cod. The bird’s song is recalled in the music.

References#

;Notes ;Sources * * * *

Hry o Marii

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Background#

Hry o Marii was a natural development from Martinů’s previous stage work, the folk ballet Špalíček, where he had used the legend of St Dorothea and conjured a series of short folk scenes. The four operas were inspired by open-air performances of plays with religious theme he saw in Paris. He originally set out to set music to several Czech miracle plays but settled on mainly French and Flemish stories, with the Nativity Play based mainly on Moravian folk poetry. In the operas the composer broadened the scope of Czech operatic possibilities by drawing on medieval folk drama and binding together traditional elements into a dramatic whole. A Czechoslovak state prize was conferred on Martinů in 1935 for the work. The work enjoyed instant recognition, but its folk-style and religious elements displeased both Nazi and Communist regimes. It was revived in Wiesbaden in 1966 (in a German translation), then in Czechoslovak opera houses in 1968 and 1969, when it was also filmed by Czechoslovak television. A production in Brno nearly two decades later conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek offered an opportunity to witness the opera again. A Prague production was mounted in November 1990. The second part (Mariken of Nijmegen) was given on a double bill with Oedipus Rex, in Oxford in 1993. In 2005 a full production was staged in Plzeň under Jan Zbavitel. Jiří Bělohlávek conducted a new production at the Prague National Theatre in 2009 in a staging by Jiří Herman. A complete digital recording was issued by Supraphon in the 1980s, with Marie Mrázová, Jiřina Marková, Anna Kratochvílová, Eva Děpoltová, Václav Zítek, Dalibor Jedlička, the Prague Radio Chorus, Prague Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek.

Julietta (Martinů)

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Performance history#

Martinů became aware of the play by Neveux in 1932, two years after its premiere at the in Paris (8th arrondissement) on 7 March 1930. It appears that Neveux had come to an agreement with Kurt Weill to base a musical comedy on his play, but on hearing some of Martinů’s music, passed his favour to the Czech. The initial work on the opera was undertaken to French words, but a Czech version was set between May 1936 and January 1937. Neveux had also been present at the premiere, adjudging the setting better than his prose original. The composer was present at the German premiere in Wiesbaden in January 1956. and it was revived by English National Opera in the following season. There was a production by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1987 conducted by Howard Williams, with the title role shared between Juliet Booth and Sarah Pring. Following a performance at the Edinburgh Festival by a visiting Slovak company in 1990, the next UK production was by Opera North in 1997, with Rebecca Caine and Paul Nilon. A production by Richard Jones in Paris in 2002 was revived by English National Opera in September/October 2012 to enthusiastic reviews overall. Germany’s Theater Bremen staged a new production opening on 29 March 2014 under the direction of John Fulljames. Andreas Homoki and Fabio Luisi mounted a new production at Opernhaus Zürich with Joseph Kaiser as Michel in 2015 and the Berlin Staatsoper premiered a new production on 28 May 2016 at its temporary Schiller Theater home, with Daniel Barenboim conducting, Claus Guth directing, Magdalena Kožená as Julietta and Rolando Villazón as Michel. The opera was one of the composer’s favourite works, and he incorporated a few bars from it in his last symphony in 1953. James Helmes Sutcliffe remarked in Opera News on “Martinů’s beautiful score” and on his “lyrical, atmospheric music”. Hindle and Godsil have published a psychoanalytical study of the opera and analysed the work in the context of Martinů’s life. The opera was revived at the Prague National Theatre on 16 March 2018, the 80th anniversary of its premiere. This was accompanied by a month-long exhibition to mark the occasion.

La revue de cuisine

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Work#

In response to a commission by Božena Nebeská and to a scenario by Jarmila Kröschlová, Martinů wrote a witty curtain-raiser called Pokušení svatouška hrnce (Temptation of the Saintly Pot) and with it scored his first popular success under the revised title La Revue de cuisine. Here the dancers play a variety of cooking utensils which swagger their way through a naïve episode of kitchen life. The marriage of Pot and Lid is in danger of being broken up by the suave Twirling Stick. Pot succumbs to his flattery. Dishcloth makes eyes at Lid but is challenged to a duel by Broom. Pot, however, tires of Twirling Stick and longs for Lid’s caresses, but Lid cannot be found anywhere. Suddenly an enormous foot appears from the wings and kicks him back on stage. Pot and Lid kiss and make up and, flirting once again, Twirling Stick goes off with Dishcloth.

Larmes de couteau

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Background#

Martinů’s first opera Voják a tanečnice (Soldier and Dancer) of 1927 was a comic work in three acts, revealing his eclectic theatrical instincts. Ribemont-Dessaignes created the libretto for Martinů’s second opera Larmes de couteau. The orchestration for the 20-minute opera is a 14-piece jazz orchestra consisting of oboe, clarinet, alto saxophone, bassoon, two each of trumpets and trombones, a tam-tam, banjo, piano, two violins, and cello, plus an accordion in the wings.

Les trois souhaits

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Background#

As an artist, poet and playwright Ribemont-Dessaignes was part of the Surrealist movement in Paris. As a composer, some of his piano works, written using a roulette wheel, had been heard at a Dadaist performance in the Salle Gaveau. Composer and librettist met when Ribemont-Dessaignes’s work had just been translated into Czech. Ribemont-Dessaignes wrote the libretto for Martinů’s second opera Les larmes du couteau (1928) with an “outlandish” and “jazz-oriented scenario”. The opera is a play within a play, rather a film narrative within an episode of real-life. The composer planned a further collaboration with this poet, but it was never completed. Ribemont-Dessaignes is quoted as saying that there is a ‘vital intensity’ in Martinů’s music, which reflects, and is perfectly in harmony with, the action. Very much of its time, the score references “the wit of Les Six, La Revue nègre and the first tangos in Paris… snatches of atonality”, while “quirky, wistful music, calling for a jazz pianist and a barbershop quartet, puts on a smile in the face of life’s bitterness”. The score calls for a banjo, saxophone, flexatone as well as an accordion, the latter also used in Julietta. An orchestral entr’acte before the final scene, entitled Le Départ exists as an independent orchestral work."

Mirandolina (opera)

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Performance and recording history#

The first production of Mirandolina remained in the stage repertoire at the Prague National Theatre until 1963 and the opera was revived there in 1980–82. In 2013–14, Mirandolina was seen at the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava. The German premiere of the original Italian version was then given in March 2014 at the Theater Gießen, conducted by Michael Hofstetter and directed by Andriy Zholdak; the Bavarian State Opera’s Opernstudio performed the work in April 2014, conducted by Alexander Prior and directed by Christian Stückl, and in June it was staged at the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava.

Oboe Concerto (Martinů)

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Editions of the Score#

Tancibudek was given permission from the composer to retain the manuscript of the concerto. Comparing this with the work published after Martinů’s death, he noticed a considerable number of discrepancies. In the 1980s, he and James Brody at Indiana University published a list of corrections with some interpretational suggestions. He and Maurice Bourgue worked together on publication of the critical edition. Maurice Bourgue and Guy Porat produced a revised edition in 2008. This edition restores the second cadenza in the last movement (removed at Tancibudek’s suggestion), and corrects a number of errors in the solo part.

Špalíček (ballet)

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Background#

From a long way off he was preparing himself for theatre work: for national Czech plays, for the ballet Špalíček and the operas Hry o Marii (The Plays of Mary) and Divadlo za bránou (The Theatre beyond the Gate). Špalíček was Martinů’s principal theatrical project of the first half of the 1930s. It is possible that Martinů was influenced by his teacher Roussel’s opéra-ballet Padmâvatî or by Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat. The first version lasts around two hours and 10 minutes, and requires double woodwind, two each horns, trumpets, trombones, timpani and percussion, piano, and strings. The revised version, made by the composer in 1940, premiered at the Národní divadlo in Prague on 2 April 1949, conducted by Václav Kašlík (1917-1989), lasts around 100 minutes, with extra wind and brass. The autograph scores are kept respectively at the Czech National Museum of Music in Prague, and at the BM Memorial museum in Polička, the composer’s birthplace. Soon after the first production opened at the National Theatre in Prague on 19 September 1933, conducted by Josef Charvát (1884-1945), a rival production opened in Brno which ran for four years in repertory. It has been revived over the years at the Prague National Theatre and elsewhere in Czechia and in Slovakia, and was recorded in 1988. The work won Martinů the Bedřich Smetana prize for composition in 1934. Grove describes the ballet as “an extended and brilliant evocation of folk customs that includes episodes amounting to miniature operas”. Martinů’s Nový Špalíček H.288 is not related to the ballet, being a song cycle set to Moravian folk poetry dating from 1942 for voice and piano. The prize-winning 1947 animated puppet feature film by Jiří Trnka titled Špalíček is often translated as The Czech Year and consists of fairy-tales.

Symphony No. 1 (Martinů)

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History#

On 19 December 1941, Martinů wrote a letter to Serge Koussevitzky, expressing a wish to compose a symphony for the Boston Symphony Orchestra for their next season. In reply, early in 1942, Koussevitzky commissioned a work for large orchestra in memory of his late wife Natalie. Despite the freedom offered in the commission, Martinů persisted in his intention to tackle the ambitious form of the symphony, with an eye to increasing his standing in American musical life. Work on the Symphony was begun in June with the first movement, in Jamaica. The two middle movements were composed in July in Middlebury, Vermont, and the finale was worked out in July and August, in Lenox, Massachusetts, while Martinů was teaching at the Berkshire Music Center. The score was completed on 1 September 1942, at Manomet, Massachusetts, and was premiered on 13 November 1942 in Boston, with further performances in New York on 21 November 1942 and 7 January 1943, all conducted by Serge Koussevitzky. (According to the publisher’s website, the premiere actually took place three months earlier, on 13 August 1942, two weeks before completion of the score.

Symphony No. 2 (Martinů)

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Instrumentation#

The Second Symphony is scored for two flutes, piccolo, three oboes, three clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (triangle, side drum, bass drum, cymbal, tam-tam), harp, piano, and strings.

Recordings#

Bohuslav Martinů: Symphony No. 2; Fantaisies symphoniques (Symphony No. 6). Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; Václav Neumann, cond. Recorded at the Supraphon Studio, House of Artists, Prague, 17, 20, and 22 March 1977 (Symphony No. 2) and 9–14 January 1976 (Symphony No 6). LP recording, quadraphonic. Supraphon 1410 2096. Prague: Supraphon, 1977. Reissued on LP, quadraphonic. Pro Arte PAL-1019. Cassette, stereo. Pro Arte PAC-1019. CD, stereo. Pro Arte/Supraphon PAL-1019. Minneapolis: Pro Arte Records, 1981. Symphony No. 2 reissued in stereo on CD, together with Martinů’s Symphony No. 1, on Supraphon 11 1966-2 011. Czech Republic: Supraphon, 1994.
USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony — Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Yedang, 1985.
Bamberg Symphony — Neeme Järvi. BIS, 1987.
Bohuslav Martinů: Symphony No. 1; Symphony No. 2. Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester (DDR), Claus Peter Flor, cond. Recorded 21–24 February (No. 1) and 29–30 May (No. 2), 1989, at Christus Church, Berlin, DDR. BMG Classics. CD recording, stereo. RCA Victor RD 60154. Cassette tape, stereo. RCA Victor Red Seal 60154-4-RC. N.p. : RCA Victor Red Seal, 1990.
Bohuslav Martinů Symphony No. 2; Symphony no. 6 (Fantaisies symphoniques). Scottish National Orchestra, Bryden Thomson, cond. Recorded in the Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow, 20–21 August 1990. CD, stereo. CHAN 8916; Chandos; Cassette, stereo. ABTD 1524. Colchester, Essex, England: Chandos, 1991.
Ukrainian National Symphony — Arthur Fagen. Naxos, 2001.
Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor “From the New World”. Bohuslav Martinů: Symphony No. 2. Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Järvi, cond. SACD recording, stereo. Telarc 60616. Cleveland : Telarc International Corporation, 2005.
Bohuslav Martinů: Symphonies Nos. 1–6. Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vladimír Válek, cond. Recorded Prague, Czech Radio, Studio A, 2006. 3-CD set. Supraphon SU 3940. Prague: Supraphon, 2008.
Martinů: The 6 Symphonies. BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jiří Bělohlávek. Recorded live at the Barbican Hall, London, 3 October (No. 1) and 9 October (No. 2), 2009; 19 February (No. 4), 19 March (No. 5), 17 April (No. 3), and 8 May (No. 6), 2010. 3-CD set. Onyx 4061. London : Onyx Classics, 2011.

Symphony No. 3 (Martinů)

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History#

Martinů composed his Third Symphony during a summer retreat in Ridgefield, Connecticut, from 2 May to 14 June 1944. The composition was not the result of a commission, but rather was a spontaneous gesture, and is dedicated to Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, on the twentieth anniversary of their association. It was premiered in Boston, Massachusetts, on 12 October 1945 by the dedicatees. The second movement is dated 26 May 1944, and so it is very probable that he was working on the finale when news was received of the Allied landing in Normandy on 6 June. Although this has sometimes been interpreted as an influence on the joyful turn taken in this movement, it is also possible that the overall design of the symphony had been established much earlier. The second movement contains thematic and harmonic material identical to the slow movement of the Piano Quintet No. 2, which had been written immediately before the symphony.

Symphony No. 4 (Martinů)

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Music#

The Fourth Symphony is scored for three flutes, piccolo, three oboes, cor anglais, three clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (triangle, wood block, tambourine, side drum, bass drum, cymbals, tam-tam), piano, and strings. The symphony has four movements:

Selected discography#

Martinů’s Fourth Symphony is found amongst the earliest extant recordings of Martinů symphonies in archival holdings. The earliest is Eugene Ormandy’s recording of the Second Symphony with the Philadelphia Orchestra, made on 20 January 1945. The Fourth Symphony followed soon after, with aircheck recordings on 78 rpm discs of a broadcast by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Erich Leinsdorf, on WNBC (New York), 27 March 1948. Neither of these recordings has ever been released commercially. Rafael Kubelik recorded the Fourth Symphony for the radio on 10 June 1948, and this recording was eventually given commercial release in 2012. * Czech Philharmonic — Rafael Kubelik. Supraphon, recorded 10 June 1948 (first issued 2012) * Czech Philharmonic — Martin Turnovský. Supraphon, 1967 * Czech Philharmonic — Wolfgang Sawallisch. Supraphon 1977 (released 2013) * Czech Philharmonic — Václav Neumann. Supraphon, 1978 * Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra — Walter Weller. EMI, 1980 * Bamberg Symphony — Neeme Järvi. BIS, 1987 * Scottish National Orchestra — Bryden Thomson. Chandos CHAN 8917, recorded 6 & 7 September 1989 * Ukrainian National Symphony — Arthur Fagen. Naxos, 2001 * Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra – Vladimír Válek, cond. Bohuslav Martinů: Symphonies Nos. 1–6. Recorded Prague, Czech Radio, Studio A, 2006. 3-CD set. Supraphon SU 3940. Prague: Supraphon, 2008. * BBC Symphony — Jiří Bělohlávek. Onyx, 2011 * Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laI5pnq5X7g 2017

Symphony No. 5 (Martinů)

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History#

The Fifth Symphony was composed from March to May 1946. Although Martinů initially spoke of dedicating it to the Red Cross, in the end the score was dedicated to the Czech Philharmonic, perhaps in anticipation of a return to his native land. Although this repatriation did not come about, the Fifth nevertheless is the only one of Martinů’s symphonies to have been premiered by a Czech orchestra: Rafael Kubelik conducted the Czech Philharmonic in the first performance, at the Prague Spring Festival on 28 May 1947.

Symphony No. 6 (Martinů)

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Instrumentation#

The Sixth Symphony calls for the smallest orchestra of all of Martinů’s symphonies, and notably lacks both piano and harp. It is scored for three flutes, piccolo, three oboes, three clarinets, three bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (cymbals, tam-tam, triangle, tambourine, bass drum, side drum), and strings.

Analysis#

The symphony has three movements: The symphony is quite unlike the previous five symphonies. In Paris in the autumn of 1955, Martinů described it to Miloš Šafránek as a work “without form. And yet something holds it together, I don’t know what, but it has a single line, and I have really expressed something in it”. The Sixth Symphony is distinguished from its predecessors by a canzona-like structure, with an exceptionally high level of invention. Motivic development is carried out in series of extended sections each with a distinct texture, steadily increasing in speed through to the end of the second movement. The reversion in the finale to the lento tempo of the opening movement is accomplished more rapidly, with the correspondence becoming exact only close to the end. The symphony opens with an hallucinatory, otherworldly texture that sounds like music only just in the process of being formed—music without rhythm, melody, or harmony. This is created using only nine instruments: three flutes, three trumpets, and three solo strings, in superimposed rhythmic layers that divide the slow beat into nine, ten, and twelve subdivisions simultaneously. The complexity produces what is in effect an aleatory texture, “a gateway into the imprecise realm of fantasy”.

The Epic of Gilgamesh (Martinů)

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Background#

Maja Sacher visited the British Museum and brought back to Switzerland the booklet about the clay cuneiform tablets concerning Gilgamesh she had seen. Martinů was very much taken with the subject (he had in 1919 created a work based on another Babylonian theme, Istar) and in September 1948 he urged his friend Sacher to obtain a complete translation; this was one by the archaeologist Reginald Campbell Thompson. However, Martinů wrote his text in English, based on the translation in hexameters by Campbell Thompson, The Epic of Gilgamish (1928), Martinů would have preferred to compose it to a text in Czech and, according to his biographer Miloš Šafránek, he regretted hearing too late about the recent Czech translation of the epic by poet Lubor Matouš. Later, Ferdinand Pujman translated Martinů’s text on the basis of Matouš’ work for what became Epos o Gilgamešovi. The composer began work around Christmas in 1954 and finished on 18 February 1955, keeping in close contact with the Sachers the whole time. They are entitled ‘Gilgamesh’, ‘The Death of Enkidu’, and ‘Evocation’ where Gilgamesh summons Enkidu from the world of the dead. Parts of the text are transplanted – for instance the first section contains elements of the Third Tablet and the final section comes from the Tenth Tablet.

The Greek Passion

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Background#

The Greek Passion exists today in two complete versions that differ from each other both musically and dramatically. Martinů wrote the original version from 1954 to 1957. He offered this original version of the opera in 1957 to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where the music director, Rafael Kubelík, and the general administrator, David Webster, had approved the score for production. However, the company then demurred on the production after intervention by Sir Arthur Bliss. Following the rejection of the first version as being too radical first by the Royal Opera House and then by the Zurich Opera and the Viennese publisher Universal Edition, Martinů reworked the opera during 1958-59 and produced the second version. The second version received its premiere at the Zurich Opera House on 9 June 1961 after Martinů’s death in 1959. It was first produced in the UK at Welsh National Opera on 29 April 1981, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras. The first US production was in 1981, at the Metropolitan Opera, in a production by the Indiana University School of Music. The first version was later restored under the supervision of Aleš Březina. The premiere of the restored version was at the Bregenz Festival on 20 July 1999 The work’s first performance in Greece itself was in Thessaloniki in 2005, using a Greek translation by Ioanna Manoledaki, based closely on the wording of Kazantzakis’s novel; the conductor was Christian von Gehren. The opera in its first version became the first by Martinů to be presented at the Salzburg Festival in the summer of 2023, in a production of the revised version by Simon Stone sung in English, it was conducted by Maxime Pascal with Sebastian Kohlepp as Manolios and Sara Jakubiak as Katerina. Although still rarely performed, the opera received an acclaimed new production in its original version at the Staatsoper Hannover in April 2025, directed by Barbora Horáková. After several postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the production marked a significant revival, with Christopher Sokolowski in the role of Manolios.

The Marriage (Martinů)

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Television premiere#

Martinů was first approached to compose an opera for the NBC Opera Theatre by the company’s Artistic Director, the conductor Peter Herman Adler, and their executive producer, Samuel Chotzinoff. Martinů had already been contemplating setting Gogol’s play to music, and his suggestion to Adler and Chotzinoff was readily accepted. Martinů commenced on writing both the music and the libretto. Although the NBC announced that they were mounting a new opera with music by Martinů, they refused to disclose to the press who the author of the libretto was prior to the premiere. Olin Downes of The New York Times described this lack of disclosure as a “dense secret”. Of the libretto Downes stated, “The book is effective, funny without being cheap, and it preserves a folk quality with whatever modern colloquialisms are woven in. The simple flavor of the original is not lost.” At its 1953 television premiere, The Marriage was a triumphant success. As usual with almost all of the NBC Opera Theatre productions, Chotzinoff served as producer and Adler served as music director/conductor. John Block directed the production, Otis Riggs designed the sets, and Liz Gillan designed the costumes. Downes wrote in his review that “The production was of an excellent quality in the 1840s Russian costumes and scenic designs, and in the admirable level of the singing and English Diction. The show was produced and directed by master hands, in a way that would have made a less interesting score, less well designed for television presentation, worth while.” Downes further praised Martinů for his successful marriage of the music with the text, stating the work “has droll characterization, adroit instrumental commentary, and certain motival phrases that bind the beginning and the end of the opera amazingly together.”

What Men Live By (opera)

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Performance history#

The opera was premiered as a television broadcast in New York in May 1953. Correspondence of the composer shows that he preferred semi-staging for the work which “positively rebels against the full trappings of operatic presentation”, and “produced an unpretentious work of quiet, ecstatic beauty and radiant charm”. The opera was nominated in the ‘Rediscovered Work’ Award in the International Opera Awards in 2015, through three Prague concert performances at the Rudolfinum in 2014 at the Martinů Music Days, with Jiří Bělohlávek conducting the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

Bohuslav Martinů on Music Theory Print

Alexandre bis

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Ariane (Martinů)

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Bohuslav Martinů Complete Edition

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Comedy on the Bridge

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Divadlo za branou (opera)

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Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano, and Timpani

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Flute Sonata (Martinů)

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Hry o Marii

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Julietta (Martinů)

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La revue de cuisine

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Larmes de couteau

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Les trois souhaits

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Mirandolina (opera)

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Oboe Concerto (Martinů)

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Špalíček (ballet)

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Symphony No. 1 (Martinů)

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Symphony No. 2 (Martinů)

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Symphony No. 3 (Martinů)

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Symphony No. 4 (Martinů)

Music#

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Symphony No. 5 (Martinů)

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Symphony No. 6 (Martinů)

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The Epic of Gilgamesh (Martinů)

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The Greek Passion

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The Marriage (Martinů)

Television premiere#

What Men Live By (opera)

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