Héléna (opera) Héléna (opera) Héléna is an opera in three acts by the French composer Étienne Méhul. It premiered at the Opéra-Comique, Paris on 1 March 1803. The libretto is by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly. It enjoyed 36 performances in the space of 20 months before disappearing from the theatre's repertoire. Bouilly was accused of basing the plot too closely on Cherubini's "Les deux journées". According to the musicologist Elizabeth Bartlet, "several scholars have pointed out [that] Beethoven's trumpet call in "Fidelio" was inspired by Méhul's "Héléna"". Constantin, Count of Arles, has been accused of killing his father. He flees with his wife Héléna
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