“Hommage à la Femme” is dedicated to Zdenka Podhajsky (1901–1991, born Podhajska), a fascinating and inspirational woman. As a young singer, I was often with her in her historic apartment with Oskar Kokoschka’s painting (which was portrayed on the First Edition orchestral score of Janácek’s opera “Káta Kabanová”) hanging on the wall over the sofa. We communicated in english, german and french. She shared many experiences which most young women in the 1920’s would not have had; she was also a dear friend to Pablo Casals, James Joyce and once later hosted a birthday party for Leonard Bernstein in her Vienna apartment. Contrary to popular belief, she never collaborated with
Isadora Duncan, although they were both major fi gures of the modern dance movement in Paris at the time.
Many aspects of the cultural world, artistic and intellectual, were active in her salons and in her life.
The reference to “Marty” in “Les Rôles” calls upon the figure of Emilia Marty in Leoš Janácek’s opera “The Makropulos Case”, where Emilia lived many lives before ending the eternal cycle by “burning the recipe”…

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Elizabeth Bice