FULL JULIETTA (Martinů) Annandale-on-Hudson NY 2025 Erica Petrocelli, Aaron Blake, Rodell Rosel, Alfred Walker

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Juliette or Julietta  
• Composer: Martinů Bohuslav   
• Libretto: Bohuslav Martinů based on the play Juliette, ou La clé des songes by the French author Georges Neveux  
• Venue & Opera Company: Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York  
• Recorded: August 17, 2025
• Type: Concert Semi-staged
• Singers: Erica Petrocelli, Aaron Blake, Rodell Rosel, Alfred Walker, Kevin Thompson, Isabelle Kosempa, Philip Cokorinos, Krysty Swann, Taylor Raven,
• Conductor: Leon Botstein  
• Orchestra: American Symphony Orchestra  
• Chorus: Members of the Bard Festival Chorale  
• Chorus Master: James Bagwell  
• Stage Director: Marco Nisticò  
• Stage Designer: John Horzen  
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Fisher Center at Bard  
• Date Published: 2025  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  Julietta is an opera by Bohuslav Martinů, who also wrote the libretto, in French, based on the play Juliette ou la Clé des songes (Juliette, or The Key of Dreams) by the French author Georges Neveux. A libretto in Czech was later prepared for its premiere which took place at the Prague National Theatre on 16 March 1938. Julietta has become widely considered as Martinů’s masterpiece.

  Performance history
  Martinů became aware of the play by Neveux in 1932, two years after its premiere at the Théâtre de l’Avenue  in Paris (8th arrondissement) on 7 March 1930. It appears that Neveux had come to an agreement with Kurt Weill to base a musical comedy on his play, but on hearing some of Martinů’s music, passed his favour to the Czech. The initial work on the opera was undertaken to French words, but a Czech version was set between May 1936 and January 1937.

  By the time of its premiere Martinů had written eight operas in a variety of styles. The work received its first performance at Prague National Theatre on 16 March 1938 (as Julietta aneb Snář), with Václav Talich conducting, a few months before Martinů made his last visit to his country of birth. From Paris he wrote to Talich expressing his deep thanks to the conductor for his “understanding” which “showed all who worked with you the right path”. Neveux had also been present at the premiere, adjudging the setting better than his prose original.  Subsequently, the opera has only been intermittently performed at that house; new productions were mounted in 1963 and 1989, and an Opera North production was seen three times in 2000; in March 2016 a new production was premiered at the theatre.Synopsis

  Act 1
  Michel, a traveling bookseller from Paris, finds himself in a seaside town in search of a girl whose voice has haunted him since first hearing it three years before. From the following scenes with various townspeople, it emerges that none of them can remember more than a few minutes, which is confirmed by a police officer. The policeman asks Michel what his oldest memory is – in fact, a toy duck. As he has such a good memory the townsfolk he is elected to be town captain, and the officer departs to prepare for his inauguration. As Michel (with just piano accompaniment) tells some townspeople of how he came to fall in love with the voice of the unknown girl, the voice of Julietta is heard and after her song she asks him to meet her later in the woods. The policeman returns as a postman with no recollection of his meeting with Michel.

  Act 2
  At a crossroads in the woods near a fountain, various people enter, all showing a lack of memory, including a fortune teller who forewarns Michel of something. When Julietta arrives she conjures a world of romantic fantasy and asks him to tell her of their (non-existent) past love. A peddlar comes by selling wares in which Julietta sees her past with Michel. She runs into the woods and Michel fires a shot at which the townspeople rush in to arrest him. He diverts them by telling them stories and they forget their intention to execute him and wander away. Back in the town square Michel locates Julietta’s house, but an old woman says that she lives alone. He hears Julietta’s song again, but decides to embark on a ship and leave.

  Act 3
  At the Central Bureau of Dreams several dreamers (the messenger, the beggar, the convict, the railway engineer) come to ask for their fantasy dream. Michel is warned that if he returns to his dream and does not wake up, he will be imprisoned in the dream-world forever. Ready to leave his dream, he hears Julietta’s voice calling him and despite the nightwatchman’s warning declares that he will stay with her. The setting and townsfolk from the start of the opera returns, and Michel remains in the dream-world.

  Quoted from Wikipedia

   

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