Bohuslav Martinu

Alexandre bis H 255

Bohuslav Martinu composed his last stage work of the pre-war period, "Alexandre bis", in 1937 for the World Exhibition in Paris of the same year. The libretto for this chamber opera buffa for five people was written by the French writer and journalist André Wurmser. It is a light-hearted parody text full of puns and exaggerations. The plot is set around 1900.

Martinu was presumably unable to complete the work in time; in any case, the opera was not premiered until several years after the composer's death, on February 18, 1964, at the National Theater in Mannheim. The Bärenreiter publishing house had produced the performance material (score, vocal score and orchestral parts) for this purpose. The Czechoslovak premiere followed on June 5 of the same year at the National Theater in Brno.

This volume of the Martinu Complete Edition is based on a careful analysis of the autograph and the composer's extensive correspondence, which led to a number of new insights into the genesis of the work. The original beginning of the opera, which includes the complete prelude, the first scene and part of the second scene, is also published for the first time in the appendix.