AUTHORITATIVE | CURATED | First 500 words Free

• Personalities
• Modern Era
• Opera

1890–1938, Czech Czechoslovakia’s most important playwright, novelist and essayist before the Second World War, Capek is probably best remembered for his satirical play R.U.R. (‘Rossum’s Universal Robots’, 1920). Aside from introducing ‘robot’ into the English language (courtesy of his brother Josef), this caused an international sensation by depicting the replacement of man by machine in modern ...

• Major Operas
• Modern Era
• Opera

Janáček referred to this opera’s protagonist, Emilia Marty, as ‘the icy one’. Perhaps he was thinking of Kamila Stösslová, the opera singer in Capek’s comedy who so fascinated Janáček that he immediately requested the rights for a libretto. Capek was sceptical that the elderly composer could understand his play, yet the final result was superlative and Capek had ...

• Personalities
• Modern Era
• Opera

1923–77, American-Greek Known as ‘La Divina’ (The Divine One), soprano Callas was regarded as the greatest singing actress of the twentieth century. She revitalized forgotten operas and her delivery combined technical precision with dramatic intensity. Born in New York City, Callas’s family returned to Greece when she was 13. She made her debut in Athens at the age of ...

• Major Operas
• Modern Era
• Opera

First performed on 21 January 1904 in Brno, Jenůfa was later revised and in 1916 received its first performance in Prague under the direction of Karel Kovarovic. He only agreed to direct the opera after submitting to persuasive pressure from friends and colleagues, but he also insisted on making changes to the orchestration. Kovarovic’s revised Jenůfa became the accepted ...

• Major Operas
• High Romantic
• Opera

Composed: 1863–66; rev. 1869–70 Premiered: 1870, Prague Libretto by Karel Sabina Act I While the villagers enjoy themselves at the fair, Mařenka tells her lover Jeník that she is to be married off against her will to the son of a farmer named Mícha, to whom her own father, Krusina, owes money. She knows little of ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Modern Era

1880–1959 Swiss-American composer Bloch studied in Belgium and Germany, and his early works are in a rich late-Romantic style that owes much to Richard Strauss; this stage culminated in his powerful opera Macbeth (1909). In the following years, he sought a language that would reflect his Jewish faith in music of fervent solemnity with Eastern colouring: the symphony with ...