Prague. (International).

It is always a treat when an opera thought to have dramatic flaws comes off brilliantly onstage. Janacek's Osud (Fate) contains much glorious music, but it is rarely staged because of a discursive libretto fashioned largely by the composer himself. It gives the impression that he was more concerned about the autobiographical details he was prepared to reveal about his relationship with a married woman--and about his art--than with traditional theatrical values. Janacek met Kamila Urvalkova in a spa; they carried on an extensive correspondence, and he promised to write an opera about her. The opera's central figure is the composer Zivny, whose magnum opus is an opera about his relationship with his beloved Mila (short for Kamila).

Robert Wilson's new staging at the Prague National Theater (seen on May 16), a co-production with the Teatro Real in Madrid, may not be the first successful staging of Osud--David Pountney's 1984 production for English National Opera is remembered fondly--but it decisively laid the opera's problems to rest. Despite many ruminative passages, the opera's story of love thwarted by fate is fascinating, and Wilson brought out its poignancy. As the opera opens, Zivny and Mila reencounter each other in a spa after Mila's mother has broken up their relationship; Mila was already carrying Zivny's child. Zivny resumes life with Mila, but then fate enters in. Mila seeks to prevent her mother, who has become deranged, from fleeing their house, but both fall to their deaths from a balcony. In the third and final act, Zivny's opera is scheduled for performance, but he has purposely left it incomplete, explaining that the conclusion is in God's hands.

Zivny is given to long musings about how Mila is portrayed in his opera, and even in their scenes together he and Mila express their love by recalling the past. These static moments profited handsomely from the familiar Wilson treatment ...