About the work
Die Ausflüge des Herrn Brouček (The Excursions of Mr. Brouček) is a burlesque opera in two parts by Leoš Janáček, to a Czech libretto by several authors, chiefly Viktor Dyk and František Procházka, after stories by Svatopluk Čech. It premiered on 23 April 1920 at the National Theatre in Prague under Otakar Ostrčil.
Plot
The self-satisfied Prague landlord Mr. Brouček has two fantastical excursions: first among artists on the moon, who expose his narrow-mindedness, then back to 15th-century Prague, where he experiences the siege by Emperor Sigismund's troops as a coward.
Cultural significance
The only one of his operas Janáček had premiered in Prague rather than Brno, the work is regarded as one of the composer's most idiosyncratic operas for its satire of Czech bourgeois complacency.