Bella, Ján Levoslav [Archive] - Friends Of Radio 3 Forum http//www.hc.sk/foto/bella_jan_levoslav.jpg Ján Levoslav Bella (18431936) I wonder whether the opera buffs (Reiner? Inquisitor? http://www.for3.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-94.html
Extractions: http://www.telecom.gov.sk/externe/znamky/1993/fdc9310.jpg I'm flattered you'd imagine I'd know any of Bella's operas, ff ;) Sadly I've not come across him until this moment - which is especially poor form on my part, since my great-grandparents and one grandparent were from Pressburg (present-day Bratislava). He would have been an exact contemporary of Janacek. There's been a great deal of Czech and Slovak music reintroduced to the repertoire from the C19th and C20th, and much of it is marvellous stuff. I wonder if there are recordings (bearing in mind I have a low tolerance for snap-crackle-and-pop transfers from cylinders and 78s) of any of Bella's stage music? Hearing an operatic crack at Wieland der Schmied might be interesting :) (There was an earlier effort to turn Simrock's book into an opera, by the composer Max Zenger, in 1890 in Munich). I wonder who the "Jaroslav" is at the centre of the other opera - a historic slavic figure (Yaroslav The Wise?), or a contemporary drama? It's a strange output of work, isn't it? "Jaroslav" seems to key into the "Pan-Slavicist" movement of which Janacek was a member - and then he writes something with a German title (and in German?) too?
Ján Levoslav Bella Stránky rodiny Binderovcov a informácie o okrese Banská Bystrica. http://www.binderovci.sk/osobnosti/bella_jan_levoslav.php