Výlety pana Broučka na Měsíc – The Excursions of Mr. Brouček [English = Mr. (little) Beetle] to the Moon – is the first part of Leoš Janáček’s comic diptych Výlety páně Broučkovy [The Excursions of Mr. Brouček], the second half being set in the 15th century during the Hussite rebellion.

Mr. Brouček, in addition to being a landlord and an inhabitant of Prague, is a scruffy, gluttonous, beer-swilling inebriate and so doesn’t quite fit in with the community of aesthetes that inhabit the celestial orb (they live off the scent of flowers, Mr. Brouček prefers the slightly heartier fare of a pork sausage) –you can see part of his encounter with the lunar artist Blankytny above.

It turns out (surprise!) that the whole episode was a drunken dream; the last we see of our hero (at least in the first part of the opera) he’s still drunk and being rolled off in a barrel.

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