Performances

Synopsis

Leos Janácek is recognized today as one of the Czech Republic's greatest composers and his final string quartet, Intimate Letters, is one of his most renowned works. Janácek wrote Intimate Letters in his 74th year. Every day during the Quartet's composition he wrote extravagant, passionate love-letters to Kamila Stösslová, a married woman 37 years his junior. Through the entwining of the playwright's words with the music of Intimate Letters, Performances looks at Janácek's frantic life during those intoxicated weeks; and specifically at his obsession with Kamila and the manifestation of that passion in the themes of the Quartet.

Latest User Review

86.130.206.83) - 9 July 2006:

The two problems with this play are that you are told that the composer on stage with the young PhD student is dead and the string quartet ineracts with these characters as part of the dramatis persona. It's unbelievability somehow undermines the play from the outset. It's a shame because the letters on which it is based are a fascinating insight into a composers thoughts and feelings during his last great productive period, the staging is excellent, the performances very good (I'm not counting the talking musicians!) and the Brodsky Quartet play magnificently. It works superbly in the atmospheric Wiltons, where the accoustics allowed the music to shine. Worth a visit, but don't expect to have your life changed....

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