麻豆社

Act 1

At the centre of the attention of the spa guests in

Luha膷ovice is the poetic Dr Suda with his friends Kone膷n媒,

Lhotsk媒 and a young woman, M铆la. A new guest arrives, the

composer 沤ivn媒. Everyone is surprised to discover that

沤ivn媒 and M铆la know each other.

They all leave and only the composer 沤ivn媒 and M铆la

remain. Their relationship in the past had been thwarted

by M铆la's mother, who considered life with a composer as

a beggar's existence. 沤ivn媒 wrote an opera about his

unhappy life. Now, many years later, he discovered that

he had falsely accused M铆la of unfaithfulness in the opera;

her son, Doubek, is in fact his child. Now 沤ivn媒 and M铆la

decide to start a new life together.

Act 2

沤ivn媒, M铆la and young Doubek live together with M铆la's

unhinged mother. 沤ivn媒 sings excerpts from his opera. He

now has to get rid of the part where he had earlier

wrongfully denigrated M铆la. Young Doubek asks his mother

if she knows what love is. M铆la knows only too well - love

and her whole life is Fate.

Life together with the mother is miserable. She is becoming

increasingly deranged; she is being forced to live under the

same roof with a man who she believes is only out for her

money. The mother sees 沤ivn媒 as an evil raven. She wants

to fly away from him, but when she falls from the balcony,

she takes M铆la with her. 沤ivn媒 is bereft at the loss of his

wife. Lightning flashes as a portent of his unhappy fate.

Act 3

The students at a conservatory are singing a part from

a new opera which was written by their teacher, 沤ivn媒. The

work is supposed to have its premiere that evening in the

theatre, but the final act is still missing. The pupils ask him

to tell them something about his strange opera. 沤ivn媒

passionately relates to them the origin of the work

and the surprised students realize that the plot of the opera

is in fact the true story of his life. 沤ivn媒 approaches the part

where M铆la dies...suddenly a storm approaches in which

沤ivn媒 sees his dead wife. The stunned composer falls

to the ground. The end of the opera remains unwritten in the

hand of God, just as with 沤ivn媒's fate.