On The Turntable: Modern Central European Classical Operas By Karol Szymanowski, Paul Hindemith, And Leos Janacek

Was under the weather yesterday. So, while my spouse was off at her museum, I had the chance to revisit, in full, three wonderful modern Central European operas: Karol Szymanowski's King Roger [Król Roger], Paul Hindemith's The Harmony of the World [Die Harmonie der Welt], and Leos Janacek's From the House of the Dead [Z mrtvého domu].

While Hindemith and Janacek wrote their own libretti, Szymanowski's King Roger is based upon a libretto by the Polish writer Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz.















Leos Janacek, above, continued the tradition of Western opera.

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Karol Szymanowskibiography at Culture.pl, the online magazine promoting Polish culture abroad, run by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland.  Karol Szymanowski was born in, and spent his childhood in, Tymoszówka, Ukraine, two hours by car southeast of Kyiv, Ukraine, through highly picturesque countryside.

Photo credit: Via Gavin Plumely and www.leosjanacek.co.uk. With thanks.