Karel Weis (13 February 1862, in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

– 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 *Czech (surnam ...

composer and musicologist. Weis studied at the

Prague Conservatory The Prague Conservatory () is a public music school in Prague, Czech Republic, founded in 1808. Currently, the school offers four- or six-year courses, which can be compared to the level of a high school diploma in other countries. Graduates c ...

; amongst his teachers was

Antonín Bennewitz Antonín Bennewitz (also Anton Bennewitz; 26 March 1833 – 29 May 1926) was a Bohemian violinist, conductor, and teacher. He was in a line of violinists that extended back to Giovanni Battista Viotti, and forward to Jan Kubelík and Wolfgang ...

. He also took private lessons with

Zdeněk Fibich Zdeněk Fibich (, 21 December 1850 in Všebořice – 15 October 1900 in Prague) was a Czech composer of classical music. Among his compositions are chamber works (including two string quartets, a piano trio, piano quartet and a quintet for pia ...

. He was for some years a violinist at the

Prague National Theatre The National Theatre () is a historic opera house in Prague, Czech Republic. It 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 ...

, and later conducted opera in Prague and

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

. He also acted as organist. 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 ca ...

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 including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...

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 ...

. 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 th ...

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). In 1888 he won the P ...

's 1900 opera '' Le Juif polonais''). *''Die Dorfmusikanten'' (1905) *''Der Revisor'' (1907) *''Utok na mlýn'' (1912) *''Blizenci'' (1917) *''Lesetinský kovár'' (1920) *''Bojárska nevesta'' (1943)

References

External links

* 1862 births 1944 deaths Czech classical composers Czech opera composers Czech male opera composers Composers from Prague Composers from Austria-Hungary {{composer-stub