(fate)
Opera in a prologue, two acts and an epilogue
Libretto by FEDORA BARTOSOVA
English version by JEAN EISLER Music by Janacek
(first broadcast performance in this country)
Apart from two early and unconvincing experiments, Osud is the only opera of Janacek's that remains unknown to the musical world at large Written in 1904-1906, soon after Jenufa, it was never performed in the composers lifetime. The story bears the imprint of a personal experience. It concerns Zhivny, a struggling composer, and his love affair with the society beautv Mila, which has been thwarted by an ambitious mother Many years later at a spa the lovers decide to elope; but their triumph turns the mother insane so that she causes her own and her daughters death. All this Zhivny recounts to students who are rehearsing his opera. reliving the experience through music of great vividness and intensity.
trained by SYBIL BELL BBC CHORUS
BBC CONCERT ORCHESTRA leader ARTHUR LEAVINS conducted by VILEM TAUSKY Repetiteur MARTIN PENNY Producer JULIAN BUDDEN
(Given before an invited audience in the Camden Theatre, London, on 16 October 1971)
(Gregory Dempsey and Ann Howard broadcast by permission of Sadler's Wells Opera)
Prologue: a rehearsal room of a famous conservatoire Act 1 A fashionable spa