What Men Live By (opera)

What Men Live By () is an opera in one act by Bohuslav Martinů to an English libretto by the composer, based on Where Love Is, There God Is Also (1885) by Leo Tolstoy, though he chose to use the more universal title of a different Tolstoy story What Men Live By (1886). It was composed in 1951-1952 when the composer was living in the United States,

Performance history

The opera was premiered as a television broadcast in New York in May 1953. Correspondence of the composer shows that he preferred semi-staging for the work which "positively rebels against the full trappings of operatic presentation", and "produced an unpretentious work of quiet, ecstatic beauty and radiant charm".

The opera was nominated in the 'Rediscovered Work' Award in the International Opera Awards in 2015, through three Prague concert performances at the Rudolfinum in 2014 at the Martinů Music Days, with Jiří Bělohlávek conducting the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

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