While this composer wrote for the concert hall, he also scored many films because the government wanted composers to work in media relevant to the masses. The original movie ending showed a school-teacher’s isolation from her community bringing about a tragic end. But this was ultimately changed to a happy (and more socially edifying) conclusion…

The composer and librettist went through plenty of trials and tribulations before this work's premiere. Among other problems, the censors demanded that a dance scene be removed. The premiere was delayed as the work was revised to appease the authorities, but it didn’t change too much: the boy gets the girl, and the royalty plays the fool.

The composer went through many rewrites of this symphony. Fond of using allusions in his music, the composer uses a cheerful folk song, but shifts it into the minor key. One theme is a self-quotation from the composer’s own early song cycle, and an inscription in the score references a famous illustration used in many Austrian children’s books…

This famous story of gifts gone wild was not easy to compose: the composer suffered from severe writer’s block. He also had to take a transatlantic trip at the same time! The reason for his visit was to celebrate the opening of a famous American concert hall. When he finally got back home he got “cracking” on this work and finished the next year.

This stage work was a modernized version of an old-fashioned social satire. The composer went on to write both for the concert hall and the Broadway stage. Intended as a flagrant assault on middle-class morals, the work backfired and turned into a pop culture hit with the very same audience it was attempting to ridicule!

As a young man, this composer possessed a great ability at cricket, which helped him escaped much bullying. The same cannot be said of the title character of this opera. The audience is often left wondering whether it was a series of unfortunate events or the doing of a sociopath!

This arrangement of a popular folk song demonstrates the composer’s unconventional approach to music. He looked at folk music as a more genuine style, free from the traditions and strictures of “art music.” And because of this freedom, he was able to freely experiment with many innovative ideas years before they were approached by other composers.

This music is used to celebrate one of the happiest occasions in many people’s lives, but it was intended to depict comes about after some fairy trickery, a little shape-shifting, and a lot of laughs. The composer found inspiration in an overture he had written on the same subject when he was just 17.

Ether Game asks, "can you name this tune? He’s just an ordinary man…"

The performers of this composer’s operas often didn’t even see the final version of their music until hours before the curtain went up. This chorus has such a memorable melody that it has frequently been suggested as a national anthem for one Mediterranean country.