Plaque to be unveiled in Prague to composer Jaromír Weinberger

A plaque will be unveiled in Prague to the Czech composer Jaromir Weinberger on the fiftieth anniversary of his death on August 8, 1967. Jaromir Weinberger is best known for his opera Švanda Dudák (Shvanda the Bagpiper). It premiered in Prague in 1929 and made him famous overnight. Švanda Dudák was the first Czech opera since Bedřich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride to be widely performed internationally. It was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1931 and the Polka and Fugue from the opera soon became a popular concert piece. Besides operas his works include orchestral and chamber music. Weinberger fled to the US in 1939 where he spent the rest of his life.