Leoš Janáček

"Jenůfa," first performed in 1904 in Brno, is widely regarded as Janáček's breakthrough and most famous opera. Other major operatic works include "Káťa Kabanová," "The Cunning Little Vixen," and "The Makropulos Affair."

Janáček was born in 1854 in the village of Hukvaldy in Moravia, then part of the Austrian Empire. His Moravian roots deeply shaped his musical language, particularly his incorporation of folk melodies and speech-melody patterns into his compositions.

Janáček developed a compositional technique called "nápěvky mluvy," or speech melodies, in which he notated the natural pitch and rhythm of spoken Czech to derive musical motifs. This gave his vocal writing an unusually realistic and conversational quality that distinguished him from his contemporaries.

His "Sinfonietta" from 1926, with its famous opening fanfare for nine trumpets, is among his most performed orchestral works. The "Glagolitic Mass" and the two string quartets, especially String Quartet No. 1 ("Kreutzer Sonata"), are also considered masterpieces.

Remarkably, Janáček produced most of his best-known compositions in his sixties and seventies, after decades of relative obscurity. "Jenůfa" brought him recognition at age 50, and works like "The Cunning Little Vixen" and the "Sinfonietta" came in his final decade before his death in 1928.