PT Journal
AU Krupkova, L
TI The Metamorphoses of the Czech Reception of the Opera Julietta by Bohuslav Martinu
SO Musicologica Olomucensia
PY 2010
BP 69
EP 77
VL 11
IS 1
DI 10.5507/mo.2010.005
DE Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959); Julietta; reception
AB The paper brings an insight into the Czech reception history of the opera Julietta by Bohuslav Martinu focusing on the period 1938-1966. Its premier took place in Prague in 1938, other performances followed in Prague in 1963 and Brno in 1966. The gap of 25 years in between was due to the Nazi and communist regimes hostility to the work of Martinu. The author scrutinizes the responses of music criticism to the three stagings of the opera. At the end of the 1930s, the distribution of attitudes to the piece followed primarily the essential divisions among the various modernist groupings in the Czech musical life of the period, especially composer societies like Pritomnost and Manes. In 1960s, the value judgements were heavily informed by the socialist ideology, the internal "musical" standpoints played a secondary role.
ER