Intimate Letters: Leos Janacek to Kamila Stosslova - Hardcover

Janacek, Leos; Stosslova, Kamila

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691036489 ISBN 13: 9780691036489

Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr, 1994

Synopsis

These are the letters of a great love story. In 1917, the Czech composer Leos Janáçek met Kamila Stösslová while on holiday at Luhaçovice, a spa resort in Moravia. He was sixty-three and locked in a loveless marriage; she was twenty-six, the wife of an antique dealer frequently away from home. After the holiday, Janáçek began writing to Stösslová. Undeterred by her lack of interest in his work and her spasmodic replies, he continued to send her letters until his death eleven years later. An extraordinarily self-revealing portrait emerges of an isolated artist at the height of his creative powers and the beginning of his international fame. It is also a portrait of a lonely man who, as the years went by, came to fantasize about Stösslová as his true "wife"--the inspiration for many of the works of his old age.

Most of these letters were suppressed until changing conditions in Czechoslovakia allowed their full publication in 1990. John Tyrrell has edited and translated a comprehensive selection, concentrating on the almost daily letters of the final eighteen months. Supported by a diary of meetings between Janáçek and Stösslová, a decoding of the erotic references in the letters, and a selection of mostly unknown photographs, this remarkable book breathes life into the story one of the greatest of operatic composers and provides vital clues to the nature of his creative genius.

Originally published in 1994.

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About this title

Review

"He was 63 and had been unhappily married. She was 25 and apparently dully, indifferently married. His infatuation was immediate and continued at high convection until his death 11 years later. His love was neither reciprocated nor consummated and she seldom even responded to his epistolary bombardment, yet most of his greatest music is about her. The letters are wonderful."--The Washington Post Book World

About the Author

John Tyrrell is Professor of Music at Cardiff University. His books include Czech Opera, Janácek's Operas and editions of the memoirs of Janácek's widow and Janácek's correspondence with Kamila Stösslová . He is co-author of the standard catalogue of Janácek's works and, with Sir Charles Mackerras, he edited Janácek's opera Jenufa. In 2002 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Masaryk University of Brno for his work on Janácek and Czech music.

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691036489
• ISBN 13: 9780691036489
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 397
• Editor: Tyrrell John