Karel Weis (13 February 1862, in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

– 4 April 1944, in Prague) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

composer. Weis studied in Prague; amongst his teachers was Fibich. He was for some years a violinist at the

Prague National Theatre The National Theatre ( cs, Národní divadlo) in Prague is known as the alma mater of Czech opera, and as the national monument of Czech history and art. The National Theatre belongs to the most important Czech cultural institutions, with a ri ...

, and later conducted opera in Prague and

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

. Between 1928 and 1941, he published a fifteen volume collection of

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...

s. Among his many compositions are eleven operas, (three in

, and eight, of which six are

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

s, in German), five of which premiered at the

Prague State Opera The State Opera (Czech: Státní opera) is an opera house in Prague, Czech Republic. It is part of the National Theatre of the Czech Republic, founded by Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic in 1992. The theatre itself originally opened in ...

. Czech nationalists however criticised him for setting German texts.''Weis, Karel'' in

Oxford Music Online ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

Operas (partial listing)

*''Viola'' (1892) *''Der polnische Jude'' (1901) (on the same plot as

Camille Erlanger Camille Erlanger (25 May 186324 April 1919) was a French opera composer. He studied at the Paris Conservatory under Léo Delibes (composition), Georges Mathias (piano), as well as Émile Durand and Antoine Taubon (harmony).Jacobshagen, Arnold: "E ...

's 1900 opera ''

Le Juif polonais ''Le Juif polonais'' (''The Polish Jew'') is a 1900 opera in three acts by Camille Erlanger composed to a libretto by Henri Caïn. It was adapted from the 1867 stage play ''Le Juif polonais'' by Erckmann-Chatrian. The play was translated into En ...

''). *''Die Dorfmusikanten'' (1905) *''Der Revisor'' (1907) *''Utok na mlýn'' (1912) *''Blizenci'' (1917) *''Lesetinský kovár'' (1920) *''Bojárska nevesta'' (1943)

References

1862 births 1944 deaths Czech classical composers Czech male classical composers Czech opera composers Male opera composers Musicians from Prague {{composer-stub