The Czech composer Leos Janácek (1854-1928) was one of the most important opera composers of the first half of the 20th century.

Leos Janácek, one of 14 children, was born in an obscure village in Moravia, where his father was an impoverished schoolteacher and church organist. Leos was sent as a choirboy to the St. Augustine Abbey, Brno, at the age of 10, where he received a rudimentary musical education and learned to play the organ. With the help of a patron, he went to Prague in 1874 to enter the organ school with the intention of becoming an organist and church choir director. His interest in composition grew, and study at the conservatories in Leipzig and Vienna followed. By the time he was 25, he had acquired a solid technique, although he had not written any compositions of consequence.

In 1875 Janácek returned to Brno, where...