Fidelio of overwhelming the (rather light) initial scenes of the opera. Beethoven accordingly experimented with cutting it back somewhat, for a planned 1808 performance in Prague; this is believed to be the version now called "Leonore No. 1". Finally, for the 1814 revival Beethoven began anew, and with fresh musical material wrote what we now know as the "Fidelio" overture. As this somewhat lighter overture seems to work best of the four as a start to the opera, Beethoven's final intentions are generally respected in contemporary productions. While some believe that Gustav Mahler introduced the practice of performing "Leonore No. 3"
What Men Live By (opera) What Men Live By (opera) What Men Live By ("Čím člověk žije" in Czech) 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 U.S.A, and described by him as a 'pastoral-opera'. The opera was premiered as a television broadcast in New York in May 1953. The first staged performance