Opera

Two operas are described from the composer’s juvenilia, The Golden Peak and Roland, but neither of them survives. The first mature excursion into music for the stage is the operetta Lottery for Husbands, composed in 1908–09 to a libretto by Julian Maszyński (written under the name Krzewiński). The composer became rather ashamed and embarrassed by this project, which was largely undertaken as a commercial venture in the hope of alleviating his money problems. His enthusiasm quickly faded during its composition. The full score appeared under the pseudonym ‘Whitney’ and a piano reduction was distributed unsigned. There are 16 musical numbers, separated by spoken dialogue (now lost) in three acts. It is scored for a rather impractically large orchestra. The operetta remained unperformed during Szymanowski’s lifetime. ¹ In conception it is closely related to Viennese operetta, but there are also elements of vaudeville. The fantastic plot has an American location and is based on a lottery for ladies, whose prize is an ideal and wealthy husband. ² There are American musical references, including a cakewalk and sections that exude a burlesque ribaldry. These elements mark the work out from the esoteric earnestness more characteristic of Szymanowski’s style at this time and the success of this attempt at musical comedy has been widely questioned. Wightman’s view, however, is that the operetta’s obscurity is unfortunate as it holds a unique place in Szymanowski’s otherwise pervasively serious output. The allure of popular styles and comedy was rekindled later in his career, and he wrote to Fitelberg in 1929 of his idea to compose a comic opera, Eva spielt mit Puppen, planned as a parody of Romantic opera and envisaged to include a jazz scene. ³ But the project came to nothing, Fitelberg being notably discouraging.