1 Although Körner entitled his libretto Alfred der Grosse, Dvořåk gave his opera the title Alfred on the initial page of the manuscript. This is the composer's only surviving reference to the work.Google Scholar

2 Recent research includes Alan Houtchens, ’ Vanda’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1987) and Jan Smaczny, ‘The First Six Operas of Antonín Dvořåk’ (D.Phil. dissertation, University of Oxford, 1989).Google Scholar

3 Krål a uhlíř (revision of second version, Prague, 1915); Tvrdé police (Prague, 1882; new edn Simrock, Berlin, 1913); Šelma sedlåk (full score Simrock, Berlin, 1882; vocal score, Prague, 1913).Google Scholar

4 Ed. Jiří Berkovec, awaiting publication.Google Scholar

5 Information that Dvořåk was engaged on an unspecified comic opera appeared in Hudební listy on 14 June 1871, followed by a slightly fuller discussion, sufficient to identify it as Krål a uhlíř, a fortnight later (2 (1871), 134 and 150). Such details were a commonplace in these two periodicals and usually appeared under the heading ‘Zpråvy domåcí’ (‘Home News’).Google Scholar

6 Reprinted in Jarmil Burghauser, Antonín Dvořåk: Thematic Catalogue (Prague, 1960), 613–20.Google Scholar

7 ‘Komposice, které jsem roztrhal a spålil’; Burghauser, Antonín Dvořåk, 617.Google Scholar

8 Dvořåk had sent the sole copy of the work to a competition in Germany in 1865; he did not win, nor was the manuscript returned.Google Scholar

9 These include Louis Ehlert, ‘Anton Dvorak’, Westermanns illustrierte Monatshefte (1880), 232–8 and a sixtieth birthday tribute, probably by Mojmír Urbånek, ‘Antonín Dvořåk 1841–1901’, Dalibor, 23 (1901), 263–4.Google Scholar

10 ‘The first work of his in this genre’; printed in an art and literary review by ‘P’, ‘Literatura a uméní’, Nårodní listy, supplement to 324, 26 November 1874.Google Scholar

11 Våclav Juda Novotný, ‘O nové upravě Dvořåkový komiché opera Krål a uhlíř’ (‘Concerning the New Revision of Dvořåk's Comic Opera King and Charcoal-Burner’), Nedělní listy, the Sunday supplement to the newspaper Hlas nåroda, 27 March 1887. Reprinted as the introduction to the edition of the revised libretto of Krål a uhlíř, Urbånek's ‘Library of Operas and Operatic Texts’, Series 2, Book 39 (Prague, 1887).Google Scholar

12 Josef Zubatý, ‘Anton Dvorak, eine biographische Skizze’, Gebrüder Hug (Leipzig, 1886).Google Scholar

13 Ibid.Google Scholar

14 Adolf Piskåček, ‘Dvořåk v tvorbě operní’ (‘Dvořåk in his Operatic Works’), Dalibor, 26 (1904), 164–5.Google Scholar

15 ‘Dvofåkův sborník’, Hudební revue, 4 (1911), 409ff.Google Scholar

16 Piskåček, ‘Dvořåk v tvorbě operní‘.Google Scholar

17 Otakar Hostinský, Antonín Dvořåk ve vývoji naši dramatické hudby (Antonín Dvořåk in the Development of our Dramatic Music) (Prague, 1908), repr. in Antonín Dvořåk sborník statí (Prague, 1912), 208–26.Google Scholar

18 See Houben, Heinrich Hubert, Verbotene Literatur (Berlin, 1924), 468–70.Google Scholar

19 František Škroup (1810–62): Der Nachtschatten (composed 1827), Udalrich und Božena (comp. 1830), Die Geisterbraut (comp. 1836), Drahomíra (comp. ?1840), Der Meergeuse (comp. 1851) and Columbus (comp. 1855). Jan Nepomuk Škroup (1811–92): Der Liebesring (comp. 1847) and Vineta (comp. ?1861).Google Scholar

20 František Skuherský (1830–92): Der Apostat (comp. 1860, trans. into Czech as Vladimír, bohův zvolenec, first perf. 1863), Der Liebesring (comp. 1858, trans. into Czech as Lóra, first perf. 1868) and Der Rekrut (comp. before 1866, trans. into Czech as Rektor a generål, first perf. 1873).Google Scholar

21 Alfred was first given on 10 December 1938 at the Czech Theatre, Olomouc, in a Czech translation by Anna Richterovå.Google Scholar

22 See Otakar Šourek, Život a dílo Antonina Dvořåka, rev. version of final edn, i (Prague, 1954), 100: ‘there is more of an emergency over good librettos than good composers’.Google Scholar

23 At the end of the manuscript of Cypřiše Dvořåk wrote: ‘When I played these songs with Mr Bendl he told me that the declamation was wrong in many places; after a year, when this prematurely born product came into my hands, I realised that Mr Bendl's criticism was entirely substantiated. 21.6.1866 A.L.D.’ Burghauser, Antonín Dvořåk, 95–6.Google Scholar

24 For a complete list of the repertory of the Provisional Theatre see Smaczny, Jan, Dvořåk Operas (forthcoming), Appendix 2. See also John Tyrrell, Czech Opera (Cambridge, 1988), 40.Google Scholar

25 One year after the opening of the Provisional Theatre the numbers of the orchestra were: vln I: 4; vln II: 4; vla: 3; cello: 2; bass: 2; fl.: 2; ob.: 2; cl.: 2; bsn: 2; hn: 3; tr.: 2; trb.: 4; tmp.: 1; perc.: 1; harp: 1. The only changes to the numbers of the orchestra by 1871 were the loss of one viola and the addition of one bass and one horn player. The presence of three violas was exceptional to the years 1862–4; after this the normal number was two, with Dvořåk as the senior player.Google Scholar

26 Jiří Berkovec, Antonín Dvořåk (Prague, 1969), 34.Google Scholar

27 See Loewenberg, Alfred, Annals of Opera (3rd edn, London, 1978).Google Scholar

28 In 1862, the year of the opening of the Provisional Theatre, the orchestra of the German Theatre comprised: vln I: 6; vln II: 6; vla: 4; cello: 3; bass: 3; fl.: 2; ob.: 2; cl.: 2; bsn: 2; hn: 4; tr.: 2; trb.: 4; tmp.: 1; perc.: 2; harp: 1. In 1871 the composition of the orchestra was precisely the same.Google Scholar

29 Interview in Pall Mall Gazette, 13 October 1886.Google Scholar

30 Interview in The Sunday Times, 10 May 1885.Google Scholar

31 Hoffmeister, Karel, Antonín Dvořåk, trans. Rosa Newmarch (London, 1928), 12.Google Scholar

32 See Jan Kvét, Mlådí Antonína Dvořåka (Prague, 1943), 101.Google Scholar

33 Ibid., 95–100.Google Scholar

34 Ibid., 99–100.Google Scholar

35 Šourek, Život a dílo Antonína Dvořåka, i, 58.Google Scholar

36 Hoffmeister, Antonín Dvořåk, 12.Google Scholar

37 Thayer's Life of Beethoven, rev. and ed. Elliot Forbes (Princeton, 1967), 531.Google Scholar

38 Karl Theodor Körner, Sämmtliche Werke. ed. K. Streckfuss (Berlin, 1834).Google Scholar

39 These titles were retained in most editions, including what appears to be the most reliable (ed. Adolf Stern, Stuttgart, 1883–90).Google Scholar

40 This relationship is chronicled in three articles by Milan Kuna, ‘Ke vzniku Dvořåkova Dimitrije’, Hudební věda, 18 (1981), 326–41; ‘Ke zrodu Dvořåkova Jakobína’, Hudební věda, 19 (1982), 245–68; ‘Od Matčiny písně k Dvořåkovu Jakobína’, Hudební věda, 21 (1984), 32–68.Google Scholar

41 Although Körner's Der vierjährige Posten and Die Bergknappen begin with choruses, none are as extensive as at the start of Alfred der Grosse.Google Scholar

42 fbš (probably František Bartoš), Nårodní politika, 15 December 1938; Šourek, Venkov, 13 December 1938.Google Scholar

43 Despite its retrospective nature, Vrchlický's Armida was written in 1888 at the request of Karel Kovařovic. The libretto was published by Urbånek to coincide with the completion of Dvořåk's setting in 1903 as volume xxviii of the author's dramatic works.Google Scholar

44 Museum of Czech Music, inv. č 1431.Google Scholar

45 There was a tradition in Prague and Vienna of performing Don Giovanni as a Singspiel for a large part of the nineteenth century. J. N. Maýr, the musical director of the Provisional Theatre from 1862 to 1866, reintroduced the secco recitatives accompanied by string chords on 15 November 1864.Google Scholar

46 See Otakar Hostinský, Bedřich Smetana a jeho boj o moderní česhou hudbu (Bedřich Smetana and his Struggle for Modern Czech Music) (Prague, 1901), 388. Smetana may well have based the recitatives added to the final version of Prodanå nevěsta on the string-accompanied recitatives provided by Maýr for Don Giovanni.Google Scholar

47 See Marie Červinkovå-Riegrovå, Dimitrij, ed. Jarmil Burghauser (Prague, 1961).Google Scholar

48 Dvořåk, Dimitrij, vocal score (Prague, 1886, 1912 and 1941). The manuscript, now in the possession of the Museum of Czech Music, was formerly in the hands of the composer's heirs.Google Scholar

49 Dvořåk, Dimitrij (Prague, 1941), 311ff.Google Scholar

50 Dvořåk, Rusalka, full score, ed. Otakar Šourek, Complete Edition, x/9 (Prague, 1960), 89ff., 350ff., 416ff.Google Scholar

51 Dvořåk, Vanda, manuscript vocal score, National Theatre Archive 381, Figures 40ff.Google Scholar

52 Wagner, Tannhäuser, Novello vocal score, 122ff.Google Scholar

53 Ibid., 132ff.Google Scholar

54 Dvořåk, Rusalka, 581–2; 592–3.Google Scholar

55 Šourek, Život a dílo Antonína Dvořåka, i, 104, and Berkovec, Antonín Dvořåk, 36–7, both note a similarity with the Internationale!Google Scholar

56 For Mazeppa and the ‘Wanderer’ Fantasia see Květ, Mlådí Antonína Dvořåka, 101. Tasso was given at a Provisional Theatre Philharmonic Concert on 24 March 1870, while Dvořåk was still a member of the orchestra.Google Scholar

57 Printed in Antonín Dvořåk, korespondence a dokumenty, i, ed. Milan Kuna (Prague, 1987), 119–20.Google Scholar

58 Šourek, Zivot a dílo Antonína Dvořåka, i; Berkovec, Antonín Dvořåk; John Clapham, Antonín Dvořåk: Musician and Craftsman (London, 1966), 268.Google Scholar

59 Burghauser, Antonín Dvořåk, 100–3.Google Scholar

60 Berkovec, Antonín Dvořåk; Clapham, Antonín Dvořåk.Google Scholar