The Beginning of the Novel

The complete presentation of Janáček’s operas during the festival’s 10th edition offers a unique opportunity not only to enjoy his masterpieces but also to discover works rarely seen on stage today. Alongside Janáček’s debut, *Šárka*, these include his second opera, *The Beginning of a Romance* (*Počátek románu*), a piece strongly influenced by the period when the composer was deeply interested in folklore. The libretto was based on a short story of the same name by Gabriela Preissová—herself inspired by a genre painting by Jaroslav Věšín—and was written by Janáček’s colleague from the grammar school, František Rypáček (publishing under the name Jaromír Tichý), after Eliška Krásnohorská had declined the task. The simple love story of Poluška, a village girl, and Adolf, a young man from the gentry—a romance that meets with disapproval from Adolf’s parents—is filled with music derived from Janáček’s own transcriptions of folk music. Janáček himself described the opera as a *vaudeville*, a genre characterized by a simple plot accompanied by popular (i.e., folk) tunes—in this case, including folk dances. The premiere, conducted by the composer himself, took place in Brno on February 10, 1894, and brought Janáček his first theatrical success. By that time, however, he was already working on *Jenůfa* (*Její pastorkyňa*); in that work, he discovered a distinctive musical language and ultimately embarked on a path vastly different from the one outlined in *The Beginning of a Romance*.