Bohuslav Martinu considered his ambitious 1937 opera, Juliette (The Key to Dreams), his most important work. The composer discovered the surreal and poetic play by Georges Neveux during an extended stay in Paris and began working on the opera to his own libretto in French, although he switched to a Czech version for its premiere in Prague. The opera was a success in its initial and subsequent productions, but has never gained a foothold in the international repertoire. It's a shame, because it's full of rhapsodic, evocative ...
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Bohuslav Martinu considered his ambitious 1937 opera, Juliette (The Key to Dreams), his most important work. The composer discovered the surreal and poetic play by Georges Neveux during an extended stay in Paris and began working on the opera to his own libretto in French, although he switched to a Czech version for its premiere in Prague. The opera was a success in its initial and subsequent productions, but has never gained a foothold in the international repertoire. It's a shame, because it's full of rhapsodic, evocative music. Martinu acknowledged that the opera, an exploration of the hazy world between dreams and consciousness, memory and reality, lacked a real plot, but the vividness of the characters and their dilemmas give it the coherence it needs to be dramatically compelling. Musically, its most obvious predecessors are a Debussyian impressionism, Stravinsky, from the period of the Rite of Spring, and the operas of Martinu's countryman, Janácek. The opera's fragrant lyricism, brilliant...
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