The Excursions of Mr Brouček to the Moon and to the 15th Century, to give the opera its full title, is a satirical work by Leoš Janáček. Janáček spent nine years (1908–1917) completing the opera, struggling to settle on a version with which he was fully satisfied. The premiere took place at the National Theatre in Prague on 23rd April 1920, the only Janáček opera not to be premiered in Brno.
Act I: The Excursions of Mr. Brouček to the Moon
Prague, 1888.
The beer-soaked Matěj Brouček attempts to find his way home after an evening’s drinking at the Vikárka Inn. He encounters Malinka, distraught over the two‑timing behaviour of her lover Mazal (Brouček’s tenant). Threatening to end her life, she is momentarily calmed when Brouček impulsively offers to marry her — an offer he quickly retracts before retreating into a dream of escaping to a less demanding existence on the moon. The moon proves the worst possible refuge for the robustly philistine Brouček: it is inhabited by the artistic intellectuals he so despises. He finds himself in the company of the avant‑garde lunar artist Blankytny, who is the lunar counterpart to Mazal, and who describes his platonic passion for a lunar maiden named Etherea. Etherea arrives with her militant sisterhood to sing an ode to a healthy lifestyle. Against all expectation, she falls in love with the dissipated Brouček and flies away with him on Pegasus, leaving Blankytny distraught. Etherea brings Brouček to the Temple of the Lunar Arts. His sudden appearance causes alarm, but he is soon embraced as the latest fashion, and shown examples of contemporary lunar art. A meal consisting of sniffing flowers does little to improve his mood, and when he is attacked for eating sausages, he flees, leaving the aesthetes — complete with a Child Prodigy — singing hymns to art. Back in Prague, Mazal and Malinka return home at dawn. A kitchen boy tells them that Brouček has been found in a drunken stupor, but their attention is elsewhere as they sing tenderly of their love for one another.
Act II: The Excursions of Mr. Brouček to the 15th Century
Wenceslas IV’s castle.
Mr Brouček is enjoying a drink while discussing the existence of medieval tunnels beneath Prague. As he makes his way drunkenly home, he somehow finds himself inside one of these tunnels. It is dark, and ghostly figures from the past appear before him, including the renowned Czech poet Svatopluk Čech. Čech laments the decline of moral values among the Czech people and calls for the rebirth of his nation. Mr Brouček is transported back to 1420 and finds himself in the Old Town Square. The German armies of the Holy Roman Empire have placed the Czechs under siege, and Brouček — whose Czech is riddled with German expressions — is suspected of being a German spy. He nonetheless manages to convince the rebels of his loyalty. A battle for the future of the Czech nation approaches, and the rebels urge Brouček to help defend Prague. As the fighting begins, however, he flees. The rebels win the battle and celebrate in the Old Town Square. They find Brouček, accuse him of treason and sentence him to death by burning — in a beer barrel. The story returns to 1888, outside the Vikárka Inn where it began. Mr Würfl, the landlord, hears groaning in the cellar. Inside a beer barrel he finds Mr Brouček, delighted to be alive and back home, claiming — true to form — that he alone liberated the city of Prague. | 
