Harmonie der Welt, Die

Opera by Paul Hindemith (libretto by the composer) in five acts, first produced in Munich, Germany, on 11 August 1957. The symphony from the opera was completed in 1951 and first performed in Basel, Switzerland, on 24 January 1952. The opera is based on the life of the astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), who maintained in Harmonices mundi that the planets emit musical sounds in their orbits round the Sun.