JANÁČEK CINEMA
2. November 2026
5 p.m. The Diary of One Who Disappeared
6 p.m. Katya Kabanova
DEPARTMENT OF MUSICOLOGY, FACULTY OF ARTS, MASARYK UNIVERSITY
LECTURE HALL N21 IN THE FIRST FLOOR
Refreshments at the FAINE café on the ground floor
The Diary of One Who Disappeared
Czechoslovak Television in co-production with Bayerischer Rundfunk München, 1969
33 minutes
Janek: Ivo Žídek / Petr Oliva
Zefka: Marie Mrázová / Eva Rubínová
Piano: Jiří Pokorný
Screenplay: Ivan Kašlík, Václav Kašlík
The diary of one who disappeared, song cycle for tenor, alt, three female voices and piano JW V/12
1917–1919, rev. 1920
on a text by Ozef Kalda
first performance 1921, Brno
At the time of the premiere of Jenůfa at the National Theatre in Prague in May 1916, an anonymous cycle of poems entitled From a Self-Taught Writer's Pen (Z péra samoukova) was being published in instalments in the newspaper Lidové noviny. Written in the form of a diary, it recounted the story of a young man's relationship with a Gipsy girl, for whom he abandoned his parents and sacrificed his previously peaceful and secure life in the name of love and freedom. Janáček was captivated by the text and cut it out of the newspaper.
He began composing the song cycle The Diary of One Who Disappeared in August 1917, shortly after meeting Kamila Stösslová, his future friend and muse, in Luhačovice. However, he abandoned the unfinished composition and returned to it the following year, again without much success. It was not until 1919 that he devoted himself to the work in earnest, completing it and having a fair copy made. Yet he remained dissatisfied. Unable to envisage how the cycle should be performed, he once again set it aside.
Janáček did not return to the composition until early 1921, when the pianist and conductor Břetislav Bakala and the tenor Jaroslav Lecian performed excerpts from the cycle for him. He subsequently revised the work and agreed to a public performance, which took place at the Reduta Hall in Brno on 18 April 1923.
It was only during rehearsals that Janáček added stage directions to the fair copy of the score. However, he was forced to scale them back, as his original conception proved technically difficult to realise, as Břetislav Bakala recalled:
"Janáček originally wished the tenor, during the performance of The Diary, to sit at a small table (as is customary at lectures) on a darkened stage illuminated by red light, rising only for the dialogue with the Gypsy girl. This was intended to emphasise even more clearly the distinction between the confessional narrative and the sudden dramatic enactment of reality. After the dialogue, the tenor was to sit down again and sing the remainder of this lyrical monodrama. However, the demanding nature of the tenor part led Janáček to abandon this requirement at the very premiere. Nevertheless, he insisted on all his other wishes concerning the performance: a darkened auditorium, red lighting on the stage, and the singer's entrance and exit."
Although Janáček's instructions gradually fell into oblivion and the work is now generally performed as a conventional song cycle, The Diary of One Who Disappeared remains one of the most remarkable song cycles in twentieth-century music.
Katya Kabanova
Czechoslovak Television, 1963
88 minutes
Dikoj: Zdeněk Kroupa / Jan Rožánek
Boris: Beno Blachut / Viktor Kočí
Kabanicha: Ludmila Komancová / Jaroslava Procházková
Tichon: Bohumír Vích / Josef Vojta
Káťa: Drahomíra Tikalová / Jarmila Gerlová
Kudrjáš: Viktor Kočí / Milan Karpíšek
Varvara: Ivana Mixová / Staša Fraňková
Orchestra and Chorus of the National Theatre in Prague, conductor Jaroslav Krombholc
Set Design: Josef Svoboda
Television Adaptation and Direction: Václav Kašlík