Just as his brother Joseph, who was four years older, Anton Foerster (1837-1926) received his musical education in Prague. He then found a position in Senj, Croatia as a choir director and organist, ultimately settling down in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana in the position of cathedral music director. His quasi-ecclesiastical activities did not prevent him from writing an operetta entitled Gorenjski slavcek in 1872, which - after Foerster had adapted it into a three-act opera in 1896 - became a national opera in Slovenia. Many of the work's melodies evolved into folk songs that are still familiar today. The plot is somewhat reminiscent of Karl May's colportage novel The Road to Happiness, in which, as is well known, no fewer than three naturally gifted musicians are discovered. Foerster's opera centres on Minka the 'nightingale', who catches the eye of a French impresario but, following a series of dramatic twists and turns, ultimately follows her heart and stays in her homeland - where, as we hear, rousing music is sung.
