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Alfred: Dvořák's First Operatic Endeavour Surveyed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Jan Smaczny
Jan Smaczny*
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
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Extract

Alfred, Dvořåk's first opera, has long hovered at the edge of our awareness of the composer. If there are signs of a growing realization that opera was to Dvořåk quite as important as other areas of his output, the detail needed to flesh out the picture of ‘Dvořåk the opera composer’ is to a large extent lacking. In the case of the composer's first six operas the inaccessibility of material has meant that an assessment of his early work in the area is still very much the province of specialist scholars. Published vocal scores exist for only three of these early operas, and none of them are in any sense scholarly editions; in the case of Krål a uhlíř (King and Charcoal-Burner) the available edition is of a revision of the score made 13 years after the work was composed, with an entirely recomposed final act. Vanda, the fascinating first version of Krål a uhlíř, and Alfred remain unpublished, although a vocal score of Krål a uhlíř has been submitted to the Czech publishing house Artia.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 115 , Issue 1 , 1990 , pp. 80 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 Royal Musical Association

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References

1 Although Körner entitled his libretto Alfred der Grosse, Dvořåk gave his opera the title Alfred on the initial page of the manuscript. This is the composer's only surviving reference to the work.Google Scholar

2 Recent research includes Alan Houtchens, ’ Vanda’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1987) and Jan Smaczny, ‘The First Six Operas of Antonín Dvořåk’ (D.Phil. dissertation, University of Oxford, 1989).Google Scholar

3 Krål a uhlíř (revision of second version, Prague, 1915); Tvrdé police (Prague, 1882; new edn Simrock, Berlin, 1913); Šelma sedlåk (full score Simrock, Berlin, 1882; vocal score, Prague, 1913).Google Scholar

4 Ed. Jiří Berkovec, awaiting publication.Google Scholar

5 Information that Dvořåk was engaged on an unspecified comic opera appeared in Hudební listy on 14 June 1871, followed by a slightly fuller discussion, sufficient to identify it as Krål a uhlíř, a fortnight later (2 (1871), 134 and 150). Such details were a commonplace in these two periodicals and usually appeared under the heading ‘Zpråvy domåcí’ (‘Home News’).Google Scholar

6 Reprinted in Jarmil Burghauser, Antonín Dvořåk: Thematic Catalogue (Prague, 1960), 613–20.Google Scholar

7 ‘Komposice, které jsem roztrhal a spålil’; Burghauser, Antonín Dvořåk, 617.Google Scholar

8 Dvořåk had sent the sole copy of the work to a competition in Germany in 1865; he did not win, nor was the manuscript returned.Google Scholar

9 These include Louis Ehlert, ‘Anton Dvorak’, Westermanns illustrierte Monatshefte (1880), 232–8 and a sixtieth birthday tribute, probably by Mojmír Urbånek, ‘Antonín Dvořåk 1841–1901’, Dalibor, 23 (1901), 263–4.Google Scholar

10 ‘The first work of his in this genre’; printed in an art and literary review by ‘P’, ‘Literatura a uméní’, Nårodní listy, supplement to 324, 26 November 1874.Google Scholar

11 Våclav Juda Novotný, ‘O nové upravě Dvořåkový komiché opera Krål a uhlíř’ (‘Concerning the New Revision of Dvořåk's Comic Opera King and Charcoal-Burner’), Nedělní listy, the Sunday supplement to the newspaper Hlas nåroda, 27 March 1887. Reprinted as the introduction to the edition of the revised libretto of Krål a uhlíř, Urbånek's ‘Library of Operas and Operatic Texts’, Series 2, Book 39 (Prague, 1887).Google Scholar

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21 Alfred was first given on 10 December 1938 at the Czech Theatre, Olomouc, in a Czech translation by Anna Richterovå.Google Scholar

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24 For a complete list of the repertory of the Provisional Theatre see Smaczny, Jan, Dvořåk Operas (forthcoming), Appendix 2. See also John Tyrrell, Czech Opera (Cambridge, 1988), 40.Google Scholar

25 One year after the opening of the Provisional Theatre the numbers of the orchestra were: vln I: 4; vln II: 4; vla: 3; cello: 2; bass: 2; fl.: 2; ob.: 2; cl.: 2; bsn: 2; hn: 3; tr.: 2; trb.: 4; tmp.: 1; perc.: 1; harp: 1. The only changes to the numbers of the orchestra by 1871 were the loss of one viola and the addition of one bass and one horn player. The presence of three violas was exceptional to the years 1862–4; after this the normal number was two, with Dvořåk as the senior player.Google Scholar

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27 See Loewenberg, Alfred, Annals of Opera (3rd edn, London, 1978).Google Scholar

28 In 1862, the year of the opening of the Provisional Theatre, the orchestra of the German Theatre comprised: vln I: 6; vln II: 6; vla: 4; cello: 3; bass: 3; fl.: 2; ob.: 2; cl.: 2; bsn: 2; hn: 4; tr.: 2; trb.: 4; tmp.: 1; perc.: 2; harp: 1. In 1871 the composition of the orchestra was precisely the same.Google Scholar

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39 These titles were retained in most editions, including what appears to be the most reliable (ed. Adolf Stern, Stuttgart, 1883–90).Google Scholar

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46 See Otakar Hostinský, Bedřich Smetana a jeho boj o moderní česhou hudbu (Bedřich Smetana and his Struggle for Modern Czech Music) (Prague, 1901), 388. Smetana may well have based the recitatives added to the final version of Prodanå nevěsta on the string-accompanied recitatives provided by Maýr for Don Giovanni.Google Scholar

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53 Ibid., 132ff.Google Scholar

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56 For Mazeppa and the ‘Wanderer’ Fantasia see Květ, Mlådí Antonína Dvořåka, 101. Tasso was given at a Provisional Theatre Philharmonic Concert on 24 March 1870, while Dvořåk was still a member of the orchestra.Google Scholar

57 Printed in Antonín Dvořåk, korespondence a dokumenty, i, ed. Milan Kuna (Prague, 1987), 119–20.Google Scholar

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59 Burghauser, Antonín Dvořåk, 100–3.Google Scholar

60 Berkovec, Antonín Dvořåk; Clapham, Antonín Dvořåk.Google Scholar