Vanda (overture), Op. 25, B97
Opus number
25
Burghauser catalogue number
97
Date of composition
August 1879 – October (?) 1879
Premiere - date and place
13 February 1880, Prague
Premiere performer(s)
Provisional Theatre Orchestra, conductor Adolf Čech
First edition
piano reduction: August Cranz, Leipzig (without date)
Main key
G minor
Instrumentation
2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, violins, violas, cellos, double basses
Duration
approx. 9 min.
The opera Vanda, which Dvořák wrote in 1875, had only a brief orchestral introduction. When preparations for a new production of the opera were under way at the National Theatre four years later, Dvořák decided to write a new overture for the occasion. The outcome was an impressive, invigorating piece of music dominated by lively rhythms. The overture develops the thematic material of the opera itself, above all, the syncopated theme which, in Act 3, is associated with the character of the witch Homena, and with the motif of Slavoj’s aria from Act 1. The work is written in rondo form, A–B–A–C–A–C–B–A.