the jacobin
OPUS NUMBER | 84 |
BURGHAUSER CATALOGUE NUMBER | original version: 159 |
revised version: 200 | |
COMPOSED | original version: 10 November 1887 - 18 November 1888 |
revised version: 17 February - 7 December 1897 | |
PREMIERE - DATE AND PLACE | original version:12 February 1889, Prague |
revised version: 19 June 1898, Prague | |
PREMIERE - PERFORMER(S) | original version: Karel Cech - count Vilem, Bohumil Benoni - Bohus, Vaclav Viktorin - Adolf, Berta Foerstrova - Lautererova - Julie, Karel Vesely - Jiri, Adolf Krossing - Benda, Vilem Hes - burgrave, Hana Cavallarova - Terinka, Emma Maislerova - Lotinka, National Theatre Orchestra and Choir, conductor Adolf Cech, director: Josef Smaha |
revised version: Vaclav Kliment - count Vilem, Frantisek Sir - Bohus, Vaclav Viktorin - Adolf, Robert Polak - burgrave, Karel Vesely - Jiri, Adolf Krossing - Benda, Julie Koldovska - Julie, Hana Cavallarova - Terinka, Ruzena Vykoukalova - Lotinka, National Theatre Orchestra and Choir, conductor Adolf Cech, director: Josef Smaha | |
FIRST EDITION | Statni hudebni vydavatelstvi, 1966, Prague |
LIBRETTO | Marie Cervinkova-Riegerova (+ Frantisek Ladislav Rieger - revision) |
INSTRUMENTATION | 3 piccolos, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 1 English horn, 3 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 1 contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, harp, organ, violins, violas, cellos, double basses + small orchestra behind the stage (2 piccolos, 2 trumpets, 1 trombone, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, strings) + mixed choir + children's choir + soloists |
PARTS / MOVEMENTS |
1st act: Market Square in a Small Country Town
2nd act: Hall in Schoolmaster Benda's House
3rd act: Vaulted Hall at the Castle
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CHARACTERS | Count Vilem of Harasov - bass Bohus of Harasov, his son - baritone Adolf of Harasov, his nephew - baritone Julie, Bohus's wife - soprano Filip, the Count's burgrave - bass Jiri, a young game-keeper - tenor Benda, the schoolmaster and choirmaster - tenor Terinka, his daughter - soprano Lotinka, keeper of the keys at the chateau - contralto town-people, youths, girls, children, servants, musketeers, country folk |
DURATION | approx 2 hr. 35 min. |
composition historyOnly in a very few cases has an extended period of time elapsed between Dvorak’s initial decision to write a given work, and the date he actually embarked upon the score. In the case of The Jacobin, this was an interval of six years. Dvorak was encouraged to start a new comic opera after the success of the premiere of his earlier one-act opera The Stubborn Lovers which, after seven years of delays, was finally held at the New Czech Theatre on 2 October 1881. The composer initially requested a libretto for his new opera from the author of the text for The Stubborn Lovers, Josef Stolba, however, the latter was not satisfied with the low fees he was receiving and lost interest in writing librettos. Dvorak then turned with the same request to Marie Cervinkova-Riegrova, with whom he had already collaborated on the opera Dimitrij. Cervinkova was not sure whether she was a suitable choice for a comic libretto but she nevertheless decided to comply with the composer’s wishes. Dvorak’s work on the musical setting of the libretto was continually postponed, for several reasons: → The genesis of the libretto was protracted and complicated (see below). |
![]() page of the score for Act 2 |
Dvorak’s indecisionCervinkova finished writing Act One of the libretto in May 1882 and read it out to Dvorak. The composer was pleased with both the theme and the treatment, so the librettist resumed her work. The two didn’t meet up again until the latter half of October. However, on this occasion, Cervinkova became disenchanted. After a series of unsuccessful attempts to bring Dimitrij to audiences outside the country, Dvorak was now uncertain whether to write a new opera with a purely Czech theme, fearing further disappointment abroad. Despite this, Cervinkova finished the text and, in the spring of 1883, under a new title, Mother’s Song, she entered it for a competition announced by the National Theatre Founding Committee (the libretto received an honourable mention; no first prize was awarded). In June 1883 it did seem that Dvorak would, in fact, begin writing his musical setting of the libretto. In a letter to Cervinkova he writes: “I have read through the libretto very carefully and I must confess that I have become good friends with the text. I like it very much.” However, further delays were to follow, caused on the one hand by Dvorak’s commitments abroad, but also again the result of his indecision. This was a period when Dvorak’s music was becoming established on the international concert scene and the composer was unsure whether the choice of a specifically local theme was the best step for the next stage in his musical career. He was also considering consulting influential Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick about the libretto, but it is not known whether he actually did. The fate of the opera The Jacobin was evidently finally decided in a letter Cervinkova sent to Dvorak, dated 1 August 1887: “I wrote this libretto at your request. You approved both the scenario and the libretto, on many occasions you expressed your delight at my work, and you intended to set it to music. But then you changed your mind and said, in particular, that the music critics are trying to discourage you. I think that, in this matter, what is important is what you, yourself, like. If you do not have a true inclination to embark upon ‘The Jacobin’, the desire that is necessary for the success of a musical work such as this, I ask that you do not feel ill at ease about this and that you return the libretto to me forthwith.” Cervinkova’s resolute standpoint clearly made an impact on Dvorak and, without further delay – six years after his initial intention to write the opera – he finally began work in the autumn of 1887. |
characteristics of the librettoThe story represents a well-balanced combination of lyrical, comic, serious and dramatic elements, with an underlying motif of patriotism threading its way through (but without a sense of vehemence). The tale conjures up the atmosphere of an idealised small Czech town during the time of the French Revolution, with a whole variety of typical Czech characters. The libretto would certainly also have appealed to the composer for the fact that a number of plot details surprisingly corresponded with circumstances in Dvorak’s youth. The environment in which the story is set finds parallels with the surroundings of Zlonice, where the composer spent part of his adolescence. The schoolmaster and musician Benda might be seen as a counterpart to Antonin Liehmann in Zlonice, who initiated the young Dvorak into the rudiments of music theory. Just like Benda in the opera, Liehmann also had a daughter named Terinka, with whom Dvorak (Jiri in the opera) sang in the choir during Mass. Earlier literature on Dvorak considers the possibility that Cervinkova may have introduced these parallels deliberately, yet we have no documentation to indicate this. |
![]() part of the score featuring the duet “We have roamed foreign lands” |
One of the chief characteristics of the libretto is the motif of music as a dramatic factor in itself. Music figures in The Jacobin on various levels: patriotic, religious, social, psychological and so on, thus it becomes not only one of the most distinctive ideological elements of the opera but, on many occasions, also the driving force of the plot. Right at the beginning in the introductory scene we hear a Marian song from the church on the square as Bohus and Julie arrive after their extended period abroad. Their return to their native country is thus closely connected in the libretto with an expression of typically Czech musicality, as Bohus observes in his first response: “Do you hear that? Czechs singing! Ah, that beautiful sound! Let it come to me! How sweet is your beguiling sound! This is our homeland come to welcome us!” Thus, in the very first scene, the audience is aware of a close association between the notions of (Czech) homeland and (Czech) music, which is reasserted in Act Two in the duet “We have roamed foreign lands”. Bohus and Julie here express their love for their country and for Czech music; these two concepts then blend into one: BENDA: “Do you know what art is? The soaring imagery in music, and in song – do you know this?” JULIE: “We are from the Czech Lands – and you ask if we know how to sing?” BOHUS: “For so many years we have roamed foreign lands, we wept tears of longing for home, yearning burned in our hearts [...] from the depths of our souls we hummed a Czech song softly to ourselves, and the gloom disappeared from our souls, an oppressive weight was lifted from our hearts.” The opera also examines the music phenomenon on a personal level: Bohus remembers a lullaby his mother sang to him as a child: “My little son, my flower, my joy, my world, my heaven!” This melody then plays a decisive role in Act Three when Julie sings it from her hiding place in order to evoke in the count memories of his deceased wife; her intention is to soften his heart and urge him to forgive his son. Another example is the derisory tune which Jiri composes himself and directs at his rival in love, the burgrave Filip (“You know this man!”). In this scene the music is, in fact, a means for rebellion, or perhaps a last refuge from the tyranny of the establishment. And music also plays a “main role” in one of the most charming and most appealing scenes in the history of Czech opera, namely the classroom scene, where schoolmaster Benda rehearses a cantata with the children which he has written himself in honour of the new gentry. |
characteristics of the musical settingThe Jacobin is one of the most cheerful and most idyllic operas in the Czech repertoire. It was largely written during a point in time sometimes referred to as the composer’s “second Slavic period”, given that the music returns to the roots of Slavonic folk music, and also manifests a certain inner equilibrium and positive expression. Even by Dvorak’s standards, the melodies in The Jacobin are unusually vibrant and eloquent, reflecting at the same time a whole range of moods, from shades of profound melancholy to joyful revelry. The ubiquitous music motif, the patriotic subtext of the libretto, and the associations of his own childhood were impulses which led Dvorak to turn out one of his most original works, creating an ideal blend of humour and fervour. Each character is portrayed in detail and with precision, each has his own particular qualities. This is most apparent in the character of Benda, the schoolmaster and musician. The way in which Dvorak conceived this exceptionally human individual is, from both a musical and psychological point of view, one of the composer’s true inspirations. The final version of the opera is practically free of recitatives, thus each act represents an almost uninterrupted flow of melody, from the first to the last scene. The composition of both versions of the opera was separated by Dvorak’s two-and-a-half year sojourn in the United States. Apart from the direct influence this would have had on his work, given his new environment and the impulses it brought him, he would also have been influenced indirectly. After his experience of being far from home all this time, Dvorak would have been well able to understand his characters Bohus and Julie who, after many years spent abroad, were finally returning to their homeland: thus, one of the changes he made to the score of the new version of The Jacobin was the entirely new, highly convincing setting of the duet “We have roamed foreign lands”. It might also be of interest to note that the score of The Jacobin contains several musical witticisms – for example, the scene in which the burgrave boasts that he will be singing at the celebrations instead of Jiri, whom he intends to dispatch to the army. The schoolmaster tries to explain to the burgrave that this isn’t possible, since Jiri is a tenor, whereas the burgrave is a bass. Dvorak then has the burgrave replying “I’ll sing tenor then!” in the lowest possible register. A similar passage occurs at the beginning of Act Two, where Benda congratulates himself on his fine composition of the music for the celebrations. Dvorak set his words “I must confess, that serenade is particularly fine, Mozart would have been proud!” to a Mozartian melody. premiere and subsequent performancesThe premiere in Prague’s National Theatre in February 1889 was a triumph. In the remaining four months until the end of the season, The Jacobin was performed fourteen times, and the number of repeat performances in subsequent years far exceeded that of the composer’s previous stage works. The Jacobin established itself in Czech theatres immediately and permanently – Prague’s National Theatre, for example, performed the work more than a thousand times up until the year 2011. Unlike Dvorak’s previous operas, the work enjoyed a series of productions abroad (all took place after the composer’s death) – Ljubljana, Zagreb, Barcelona, Mannheim, Berlin, Dresden, Essen, Weimar, London, Wexford, Edinburgh and Washington. Czechoslovak Television recorded a production of an abridged version of the opera in 1974.
synopsisthe story is set in a small Czech town in the year 1793. ACT ONE: ACT TWO: ACT THREE: |