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3 unusual facts about Leoš Janáček


Leoš Janáček

Janáček is the central character in David Herter's First Republic trilogy, comprising the novels On the Overgrown Path, The Luminous Depths and One Who Disappeared.

Pohádka

Pohádka – a composition for cello and piano by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček

Rosa Newmarch

This described her role popularising the music of Leoš Janáček in Britain, and organising a visit to Britain by the composer.


Can't Get It Out of My Head

In the '70s, a "Sacred Mushroom Edition" cut of Kenneth Anger's experimental film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome circulated that used the ELO song as its score instead of the original Glagolitic Mass by Czech composer Leoš Janáček

Claudia Cassidy

She was unfailingly critical of the great Czech conductor Rafael Kubelík, described Janáček's orchestral work Taras Bulba as "trash" and even called Bartók's classic Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta a "potboiler".

Jenůfa

Leoš Janáček: Jenůfa – Magda Olivero (Soprano), Jeda Valtriani (S), Nicola Zaccaria (Bass), Margherita Benetti (Soprano), Giuseppe Morresi (Baritone), Grace Bumbry (Mezzo Soprano), Maria Grazia Allegri (Soprano), Nella Verri (Mezzo Soprano), Silvana Zanolli (Soprano), Renato Cioni (tenor), Jerzy Semkow (Conductor); La Scala Orchestra and Chorus.

Karel Ančerl

In addition to performances of Czech composers, including Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana, Leoš Janáček, Bohuslav Martinů and Miloslav Kabeláč, Ančerl is also admired for his interpretations of 20th-century composers, such as Gustav Mahler, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, as well as the Toronto-based organist/composer Healey Willan.

Karin Branzell

Karin Branzell sang the contralto/mezzo parts in all of Wagner's operas, some of Verdi's, as well as Herodias and Clytemnestra in Richard Strauss's Salome and Elektra, the Kostelniczka in Leoš Janáček's Jenůfa and Wilhelm Peterson-Berger's Arnljot, and many other roles.

Long Beach Opera

Significant LBO productions during Milenski's tenure included Powder Her Face by Thomas Adès, Richard Strauss’ Elektra (which was televised in Germany), Janáček's From the House of the Dead, The Beaumarchais Trilogy and the complete operas of Claudio Monteverdi.

St Thomas's Abbey, Brno

Czech composer Pavel Křížkovský also took monastic vows at Brno, teaching liturgical music from 1848 until 1872, and from 1865 he formed an ongoing musical collaboration with the young (lay) composer Leoš Janáček who had come from his home in Hukvaldy and begun as a choirboy at the monastery.

The Wandering Madman

The Wandering Madman (in Czech: Potulný šílenec, JW 4/43) is a choral composition for soprano, tenor, baritone and male chorus, written in 1922 by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček to the words of a poem by Rabindranath Tagore.


see also

Walter Sutcliffe

He recently directed the American stage premiere of Leoš Janáček's first opera, Sarka, for Dicapo Opera, New York.