There are too few opportunities to experience the operas of Martinu — he wrote 14 altogether — and the BBC Symphony’s presentation of Julietta, enthusiastically promoted by the orchestra’s chief conductor, Jirí Belohlávek , was an event not to be missed. Julietta explores the world of dreams, where its protagonist, Michel, hopes to encounter once again the mysterious girl with whose voice he fell in love with years earlier.

Michel is the only one to have any memory of the past. The girl, Juliette, claims to remember him and invents a past romantic life for them both, abetted by a character called The Seller of Memories. The action unfolds in heightened recitative, rather like Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, but with much comic business, often delivered in spoken form. The orchestra, meanwhile, chugs along merrily: perhaps ironically in a work dealing with what is memorable, much of the music is anything but that. Yet there are treasurable glimpses into an inner world of fantasy and imagination.

The first of these is Juliette’s song from a balcony window, floated evocatively by Magdalena Kozena. William Burden was an admirable Michel. Other roles were excellently taken by Roderick Williams, Rosalind Plowright and Andreas Jaggi.

Belohlávek kept things moving, making smooth transitions between speech and song, and reaching a powerful conclusion with Michel’s final outburst of passion. First-rate contributions, too, from the BBCSO and BBC Singers, both on good form. Kenneth Richardson’s resourceful concert staging helped to bring the action alive.
Broadcast on 31 March on BBC Radio 3.