Alles durch M. O. W. Ballett in one act for two solo voices (soprano and baritone), mixed choir, and orchestra, to libretto by Alfred Rust, op. 15 (1932)
Manuscript: Unknown
Publication: Piano reduction printed by Academy of Arts. Call number: Sno 1450-Kasten
Premiere: No data available
Movements: Introduction, Chorale and Jazz, Chanson with Chorus, Solo and Chorus, Pantomime and Chorus, Chorus and Duet, Pantomime, Soli and Chorus, Grand Tango – Soli and Chorus, Dance of Pairs – Chorus, Grand Orchestral Fugue, Pantomime, Chorus, Finale
not so much for musical reasons as due to the enigma of its alleged performance. Shortly after the success of Koffler’s String Trio at the ISCM festival, both Polish and German-language press (e.g. Der Wiener Tag, 12 August 1931) reported that Koffler was working on such a piece and that it was to be staged in Lwów, Berlin, Breslau, Vienna, and Essen. No proof of any actual performance has been found.
including information that ‘Valeria Kratina will present the world premiere of I. K. C, a spectacle for dancers, two solo voices and mixed choir […], in which a completely novel combination of song-and-dance with loudspeakers and film projection has been applied for the first time’. The production was to be directed by Adam Dołżycki, while the Polish premieres of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Wilhelm Grosz’s Baby in der Bar were planned for the same night. Such an event never took place, though, and Koffler’s work was probably only premiered in the twenty-first century at the Warsaw Chamber Opera, with orchestration by Edward Pałłasz (based on the surviving piano reduction) and a new libretto by Joanna Kulmowa. The whole was staged as Matrimonio con Variazioni (premiered on 22 May 2009, dir. Romana Agnel).
Koffler’s original belongs to the tradition of Zeitoper, which explored current topical subjects and featured props and trends from contemporary everyday life. The music is based on a twelve-note row, which plays an integrating role and corresponds to the twelve scenes of the whole ballet. Koffler creates a quasi-collage of such scenes, referring to various genre traditions from four-part chorale to fugue to early and popular dances (the tango, waltz, and march) as well as jazz rhythms. Most notably, the design was extremely innovative: ‘a fusion of a ballet and an oratorio using the medium of a talking movie’, as Alfred Plohn explained, adding that
two semi-choirs and two solo voices take part in the performance, but they are not directly present on the stage, where only the ballet dancers appear. Instead, the voices are heard over the loudspeakers, and the role of the so-called Evangelist (historicus) is taken over by captions, projected on a screen as in a movie
(A. Plohn, ‘Józef Koffler’, Chwila, 27 April 1931, 10).