Name Elisabeth Rockel | Role Soprano | |
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Died March 3, 1883, Weimar, Germany Spouse Johann Nepomuk Hummel (m. 1813–1837) People also search for Johann Nepomuk Hummel | ||
Elisabeth Röckel (15 March 1793, baptised "Maria Eva", Neunburg vorm Wald – 3 March 1883 in Weimar) was a German soprano opera singer and the wife of the composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel.
Life
She was a friend of composer Ludwig van Beethoven from 1808. Late in 1810, she went to the theater in Bamberg where she made her stage debut as Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni and became a friend of the writer E. T. A. Hoffmann. It has been suggested that Beethoven wrote his famous Bagatelle No. 25 for piano, commonly known as "Für Elise", in the days of her departure from Vienna. It had the inscription "Für Elise am 27 April zur Erinnerung von L. v. Bthvn" (For Elise on 27 April in memory of L. v. Bthvn). There is however no proof that Röckel was ever in the possession of the autograph of that piano piece.
During the days before Beethoven's death, she and her husband Hummel visited Beethoven several times, and cut and saved a lock of his hair. This was later discovered in 1934 in Florence by Wilhelm Hummel, a descendant of Johann Nepomuk Hummel. The lock of hair is now in the Beethoven Center of the San Jose State University.