ill-fated love

Dvořák’s pupil and son-in-law Josef Suk later reported – perhaps based on what the composer himself had said – that, around the year 1865, he had fallen for the charms of a young actress from the Provisional Theatre, Josefina Čermáková. His acquaintance with her was in a certain sense a defining moment in his personal life from that point on, since he later married her younger sister Anna (Mozart and Haydn experienced something similar). Not only did Dvořák and Josefina work in the same theatre, but the composer also encountered her during his visits to the Čermák family, whom he taught the piano on a regular basis. Dvořák expressed his love for the actress in a cycle of love songs entitled Cypresses, a musical setting of a collection of poems by Gustav Pfleger-Moravský. Josefina later married Count Václav Kounic but Dvořák maintained his affections for her and remained close friends with both of them his whole life. Dvořák returned to Cypresses on many occasions thereafter; its melodies feature in a number of the composer’s later works.