Christopher Columbus (Zador)

Christopher Columbus is an opera in one act by composer Eugene Zador with a German-language libretto by Archduke Joseph Francis of Austria. Zador, a Hungarian Jew, wrote the opera while voyaging across the Atlantic Ocean in 1939 to flee persecution from Nazi Germany. The work depicts the first voyage of Christopher Columbus to America in 1492. Soprano Josepha Chekova wrote an English-language translation to the work for its world premiere on October 8, 1939. Her translation has been used several times for performances of the work in the United States, including on a recording made by the American Symphony Orchestra in 1975. The opera is approximately one hour in length.