He was for some years a violinist at the Prague National Theatre, and later conducted opera in Prague and Brno. He also acted as organist. Between 1928 and 1941, he published a fifteen volume collection of folk songs.[3][4]
Among his many compositions are eleven operas, (three in Czech, and eight, of which six are operettas, in German), five of which premiered at the Prague State Opera. Czech nationalists however criticised him for setting German texts.[5]