PT Journal
AU Zahradka, J
TI Leos Janacek, Karel Kovarovic and Jeji pastorkyna
SO Musicologica Olomucensia
PY 2021
BP 41
EP 59
VL 33
IS 1
DI 10.5507/mo.2021.003
DE Karel Kovarovic; Leos Janacek; opera; Jeji pastorkyna
AB This study focuses on the complicated relationship between Leos Janacek and Karel Kovarovic, composer, conductor and head of the opera of the National Theatre in Prague. As a reviewer, Janacek was critical not only of Kovarovic's conducting, but also of his compositions. When he offered his recently completed opera Jeji pastorkyna to the Prague National Theatre in 1903, the management of the theatre and with it Kovarovic refused the work. Although Janacek tried to submit it several more times, Kovarovic insisted on his decision. The reason could be not only a mutual animosity, but also a misunderstanding of Janacek's new approach to opera and probably also the fact that Janacek presented Jeji pastorkyna in its first version, which in a compositional and dramaturgical way did not reach the quality of later renditions. After considerable efforts on the part of the composer, Kovarovic's resistance to the staging of Jeji pastorkyna on the boards of the National Theatre was broken in 1915. The staging did not take place, as might be expected, as a matter of course: Kovarovic's devotion to Janacek's opera was above and beyond the call of duty. In good faith, he intervened fundamentally in the instrumentation of the score and thus in its character. However, Janacek acknowledged the changes and even kept them in the printed Universal Edition score. As it turned out, he did not have a complete overview of their quantity and character. It was only after Kovarovic's death, in connection with the payment of royalties to his widow Anna, that Janacek strongly objected to these modifications. Sources prove that Janacek never forgave Kovarovic for his twelve-year rejection of the opera Jeji pastorkyna.
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