The plot of Janácek's opera The Excursions of Mr. Broucek was derived from the fantastic novels of Svatopluk Cech. Cech wrote involved and imaginative sagas of the adventures of Mr. Broucek first to the moon and then to the fifteenth century. Cech's first Broucek novel was published in 1888, but it wasn't until 1908 after the author's death that Janácek sought the rights to turn these adventures into a musical theatrical work. Janácek worked with a variety of authors attempting to put together a viable libretto, but in the end he wrote most of his opera book himself. The opera developed extremely slowly, due largely to the difficulties the composer had in creating a good text and, frustrated, he put the entire work aside for a time. Viktor Dyk and F.S. Prochazka eventually helped him complete the work.

Broucek's excursion to the moon begins at the end of the opening scene of the opera as Broucek, lost in reverie and gazing at the moon from the Earth, is suddenly borne aloft. When he lands on the moon he finds himself amid a colony of artists and moon inhabitants with zany rules of etiquette and fantastic means of locomotion. He is whisked away to his adventures by a moon goddess who fancies them lovers. When Broucek travels back in time to the fifteenth century, he arrives at an important moment in Czech history, when Czech Protestants repel invading armies of crusaders from their borders. Attitudes of war and danger surround him, but this scene, too, is imbued with the fantastic and comic. Broucek tries to pretend that he has acted heroically, but he has instead behaved as a coward. Just as a crowd of nationalist Czechs prepare to lynch him, he finds himself back at home, stuck in a beer barrel.

Janácek's opera premiered in its partial state when only the moon adventures were complete. It was staged in Prague at the National Theater on April 23, 1920.

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