Three novelistic scenes
Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes
Music: Leoš Janáček
(Composed 1903-4. rev. 1906, 1907)
Libretto: Composer and Fedora Bartošová
Premiered: Brno, 25/10/1958

Catalogue Number: JW I/5

Osud was inspired by the spa town of Luhačovice, where Janáček enjoyed many holidays in the summer. It was there that him met Kamila Stösslová who was to inspire the ‘Indian summer’ of composition of his final decade, and there that he met Mrs Urválková. As with the more famous Mrs Stösslová, Janáček was infatuated and returned to Brno to write the opera, a piece of musical autobiography as some have suggested. At first her depiction in the opera was to be incredibly favourable, but as his feelings towards her changed (perhaps prompted by the fact that her husband stopped her from contacting Dr. Janáček) so did her picture in the opera. Osud is arresting, experimental in the extreme (its predecessors all have links to previous traditions), but like other Künstleroper (as John Tyrrell suggests Osud is), in the mode of Pfitzner’s Palestrina (1918), Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler (1938) or Křenek’s Jonny spielt auf! (1927), it is an intensely problematic work. Osud differs from Jenůfa in that, unlike that more popular and appealing opera, it lacks a dramatic consistency. It was, however, a proving ground for his speech-melody theories. The opera was never heard in Janáček’s lifetime and has never achieved repertoire status since. Osud has much glorious music in it, however, and should receive more attention than it presently does. Both the available recordings are exemplary.

As well as the pictured production at Garsington, there have recently been performances of the opera in Prague in a production by Robert Wilson. This production is being revived in Prague this year, and will be performed in Madrid in the Autumn. A new production will be seen at the Wiener Staatsoper next year. The opera is gaining in popularity, though perhaps will never reach the dizzy heights of popularity of the composer's other operatic works.


Synopsis:

Act One

A Spa

The composer Živný meets up with a former mistress, Míla. Spa life is full of all sorts of people; artists, fashionable society, singing female teachers, young people on an excursion. When left alone, the conversation between Živný and Míla reveals that they had had a child, but pressure from Míla’s family had meant that she married another. They leave together, despite the consternation of Míla’s mother.

Act Two

The study in Živný’s house

Živný and Míla are now living together, along with their five-year-old son, Doubek. Míla’s mother, now deranged and needing constant care and attention, lives with them, and can be heard mocking Živný’s new composition, an opera, which he plays to his wife. The opera depicts much of his wife’s past in it, and enraged by his own opera Živný begins to tear pages from his manuscript. Míla’s mother breaks into the room, accusing Živný of taking her daughter from her, along with her money. In the ensuing struggle between Míla, both fall to their death.

Act Three

The main hall of the conservatoire (12 years on)

Students are singing through scenes from Živný’s opera, which is to be performed that evening. He enters and the students persuade him to tell them something of the pieces history. As he does so a storm erupts, through which he sees a vision of his dead wife, and hears he voice. He collapses.




Bibliography:
Tyrrell, John: Janáček’s Operas: A Documentary Account (London: Faber, 1992)

Tyrrell, John: Czech Opera (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988)

Cheek, Timothy
Singing in Czech: A Guide to Czech Lyric Diction and Vocal Repertoire (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2001)

Editions:
None available in the UK (Hire via Faber Music)

Recordings:
Přibyl, Hajóssyová, Brno Janáček Opera: Jílek (Supraphon GEMS 0045)
Field, Harries, Langridge, O and ChWNO: Mackerras (Chandos CHAN 3029)
(in English)