Fate [Osud], groundbreaking work in many aspects

During his summer stay in the Luhačovice spa Leoš Janáček met charming Kamila Urválková who on numerous meetings told him her youth love story which attracted his attention. As a young girl she fell in love with Ludvík Vítězslav Čelanský, a composer and conductor, who after their break-up composed the opera Kamilla based on his own libretto. In this opera he portrayed the main character as an immature and reckless person. Kamila Urválková was deeply offended. The opera was successfully performed by the Prague National Theater in 1897. The story became an inspiration for composer's next opera. After his return to Brno Leoš Janáček started pondering upon the composition structure and looking for a suitable work fellow who would write a libretto. Finally he asked his late daughter Olga's friend, Fedora Bartošová, a young teacher. Fedora rhymed Janáček's prosaic text. At first everything proceeded well and the first libretto version had been finished before Christmas, 1903. The whole structure was then however changed greatly and the libretto Janáček used for his composition was not prepared until July 1904. At this time he also ended his cooperation with Fedora Bartošová. We know very little about the composition work itself. Janáček was composing the present first act using the older libretto version from 10th March to 22nd April 1904 and then probably resumed working in the second half of 1904. The autographed composition was presumably finished in mid-1905. A score copy by Josef Štross includes the only date, 14th June 1905, at the end of the present third act (originally the first act). Since then the copy has been modified many times. After the score copy had been finished, Janáček drew up, perhaps in the second half of 1905, a practice part (a simple short score) which corresponds to the then act structure and text revision. The part was copied successively in 1906 by Hynek Svozil. Janáček was still working on the opera. In June 1906 he finished the score revision and stated the final opera name as Fatum, thus Fate. On 16th June 1906 the Družstvo committee of the Czech National Theater in Brno claimed its interest in performing the opera and the premiere was planned for March of the next year. However, the opera was not performed and the composer followed Artuš Rektorys' advice and assigned the performance to the newly opened Prague City Theater in Královské Vinohrady. The theater authorities accepted it but studying was being constantly postponed. In 1907 Janáček revised the score again and waited for the Prague performance. When the situation did not change, he was determined to put the theater to court. Finally he gave up and on 2nd March 1914 the Prague theater authorities returned the score with the presumption that Janáček did not request the opera performance any longer. Janáček revised the score once more and tried to have at least the introduction to the third act performed at the Czech Philharmonic concert but did not succeed either. Janáček knew well the libretto was problematic and before 1918 he had asked several writers to rework it. After reading the libretto František S. Procházka, Jaroslav Kvapil and Max Brod declined any cooperation. The composer did not urge the opera performance any more. Thus Fate was not radio broadcasted until 1938 and scenic premiered until 1958