Leoš Janáček, Karel Kovařovic a Její pastorkyňa
Leoš Janáček, Karel Kovařovic and Její pastorkyňa

Summary/Abstract: This study focuses on the complicated relationship between Leoš Janáček and Karel Kovařovic, composer, conductor and head of the opera of the National Theatre in Prague. As an reviewer, Janáček was critical not only of Kovařovic’s conducting, but also of his compositions. When he offered his recently completed opera Její pastorkyňa to the Prague National Theatre in 1903, the management of the theatre and with it Kovařovic refused the work. Although Janáček tried to submit it several more times, Kovařovic insisted on his decision. The reason could be not only a mutual animosity, but also a misunderstanding of Janáček’s new approach to opera and probably also the fact that Janáček presented Její pastorkyňa in its first version, which in a compositional and dramaturgical way did not reach the quality of later renditions. After considerable efforts on the part of the composer, Kovařovic’s resistance to the staging of Její pastorkyňa on the boards of the National Theatre was broken in 1915. The staging did not take place, as might be expected, as a matter of course: Kovařovic’s devotion to Janáček’s opera was above and beyond the call of duty. In good faith, he intervened fundamentally in the instrumentation of the score and thus in its character. However, Janáček acknowledged the changes and even kept them in the printed Universal Edition score. As it turned out, he did not have a complete overview of their quantity and character. It was only after Kovařovic’s death, in connection with the payment of royalties to his widow Anna, that Janáček strongly objected to these modifications. Sources prove that Janáček never forgave Kovařovic for his twelve-year rejection of the opera Její pastorkyňa.

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