The Resume

(July 3, 1854-August 12, 1928)
Born in Hukvaldy, Czech Republic
Composed the operas 'Jenufa' (1904), 'Kat'a Kabanova' (1921), 'The Cunning Little Vixen' (1924), 'The Makropulos Affair' (1926) and 'From the House of the Dead' (published posthumously, 1930)
Other works include 'Elegy on the Death of Daughter Olga' (1903), 'Piano Sonata 1.X.1905' (1905), 'In the Mists' (1912), 'Taras Bulba' (1918), 'The Diary of One Who Disappeared' (1919), 'String Quartet No. 1: Kreutzer Sonata' (1923) and 'String Quartet No. 2: Intimate Letters' (1928)

Why he might be annoying:

Camille Saint-Saens rejected him as a potential student.
His first opera, 'Sarka,' went unperformed for over three decades because of a dispute over the rights to the libretto.
He married one of his piano students.
After he had an affair with a singer, his wife attempted suicide, to which he responded by threatening to divorce her.
Many of his later works were inspired by his infatuation with a married woman nearly 40 years younger than him.

Why he might not be annoying:

Although he could not afford a piano and practiced using a keyboard drawn on a tabletop, he graduated from a Prague organ school at the top of his class.
Both his children died before reaching adulthood.
It took a while for him to become nationally known because the director the National Theatre in Prague, Karel Kovarovic, refused to stage his works in retaliation for Janacek writing a negative review of one of Kovarovic's compositions.
One critic called him 'the only composer I know whose most daring inventions came after age seventy.'
He incorporated folksongs into his work and, after acquiring an Edison phonograph, was one of the first people to make field recordings of folk music.

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 39]
• I am an Adulterer
• I Died in 1928 (Ranked: 74)
• I Had Pneumonia
• I Outlived My Child
• I Was Hot For My Student
• Look at My Album Cover
• Opera Singers and Composers
• Profiles 32001-32250 (Ranked: 32074)

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 8 Votes: 87.50% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 6 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 19 Votes: 84.21% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 49 Votes: 65.31% Annoying
In 2013, Out of 17 Votes: 64.71% Annoying
In 2012, Out of 148 Votes: 72.30% Annoying
In 2011, Out of 87 Votes: 82.76% Annoying