The Beginning of a Romance ("Počátek Románu") is an opera by Leoš Janáček

Leoš Janácek

Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...

 to a Czech

Czech language

Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...

 libretto by Jaroslav Tichý after a short story by Gabriela Preissová

Gabriela Preissová

Gabriela Preissová, née Gabriela Sekerová, sometimes used pen name Matylda Dumontová , was a Czech writer and playwright. Her play Její pastorkyňa was the basis for the opera Jenůfa by Leoš Janáček...

, itself suggested by a painting by Jaroslav Věšín

Jaroslav Vešín

Jaroslav František Julius Věšín was a Czech painter who mainly worked in Bulgaria and who was noted as a master of genre painting. The realistic depiction of battle scenes from the First Balkan War are the subject of a substantial part of his work.Věšín was born in the town of Vraný in what is...

. Composed in 1891

1891 in music

- Events :* February 23 - Fourteen-year-old cellist Pablo Casals gives a solo recital in Barcelona.* October 16 - The Chicago Symphony Orchestra gives its inaugural concert.*The Peabody Mason Concerts are inaugurated with a performance by Ferruccio Busoni....

, it was first produced on October 2, 1894

1894 in music

- Events :*March 14 - Johan Svendsen conducts the world premiere of Carl Nielsen's Symphony No. 1 in Copenhagen*December 22 - Claude Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune is premiered in Paris* Enrico Caruso makes his operatic debut...

 in Brno

Brno

Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...

.

Although not a successful work, it is significant because it marks the beginning of Janáček's association with Gabriela Preissová, who also wrote the story on which Jenůfa

Jenufa

Jenůfa is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the play Její pastorkyňa by Gabriela Preissová. It was first performed at the Brno Theater, Brno, 21 January 1904...

, his first great opera, was based. Originally planned as a singspiel

Singspiel

A Singspiel is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera...

 with spoken dialogue, The Beginning of a Romance is unusual among Janáček's stage works in being a "numbers opera" rather than composed with continuous music.

Synopsis

Poluška, a pretty village girl, flirts with Baron Adolf despite her engagement to Tonek, a boy of her own class. Tonek is downcast. The gamekeeper catches Adolf and Poluška courting and tells Poluška's parents. Her father disapproves, but her mother is excited and arranges a meeting with Baron Adolf's father. This does not go well, and Poluška returns chastened to the faithful Tonek, while the Baron finds happiness with a Countess. The characters reflect on the folly of mésalliance.

External links

• Gavin Plumley's Leoš Janáček site, information on Počátek Románu Retrieved 25 November 2009