Name Engelbert Humperdinck Role Composer | Music director The Miracle | |
 | ||
Died September 27, 1921, Neustrelitz, Germany Education Hochschule fur Musik und Tanz Koln Librettists Adelheid Wette, Elsa Bernstein Compositions Hansel and Gretel, Hansel and Gretel, Konigskinder, Konigskinder, Hansel and Gretel: Evening Prayer, Hansel and Gretel: Evening Prayer, Dornroschen, Dornroschen, Die Engel singen, Die Engel singen, Christkindleins Wiegenlied, Christkindleins Wiegenlied, Altdeutsches Weihnachtslied, Altdeutsches Weihnachtslied, Die Heirat wider Willen, Die Heirat wider Willen, Weihnachtslieder, Weihnachtslieder, Die Marketenderin, Die Marketenderin, Rheinlied, Rheinlied, Die Lerche, Die Lerche, Junge Lieder, Junge Lieder, Entsagung, Entsagung, Weihnachtsfreude, Weihnachtsfreude, Holzmann und Holzfrau, Holzmann und Holzfrau, Hansel und Gretel - Act Two - Scene 1: "Mein Erbelkorbchen ist voll bis oben!" (Gretel - Hansel), Hansel und Gretel - Act Two - Scene 1: "Mein Erbelkorbchen ist voll bis oben!" (Gretel - Hansel), Die Schwalbe, Die Schwalbe, Act II Scene III Traumpantomime, Act II Scene III Traumpantomime, Auf Vaters Knien, Auf Vaters Knien, Kaferlied, Kaferlied, Abendlied, Abendlied, Roslein Walzer, Roslein Walzer, Musik zu W Shakespeares 'Was ihr wollt', Musik zu W Shakespeares 'Was ihr wollt', Hansel und Gretel - Act Two - Scene 2: "Der kleine Sandman bin ich - st! - Lied des Sandmanns" (Sandmann - Hansel - Gretel), Hansel und Gretel - Act Two - Scene 2: "Der kleine Sandman bin ich - st! - Lied des Sandmanns" (Sandmann - Hansel - Gretel), Hansel und Gretel - Act One - Scene 1: "So recht! und willst du nun nicht mehr klagen" (Gretel - Hansel), Hansel und Gretel - Act One - Scene 1: "So recht! und willst du nun nicht mehr klagen" (Gretel - Hansel), Romanze, Romanze, Hansel und Gretel - Act One - Scene 2: "Marsch! Fort in den Wald!" (Mutter), Hansel und Gretel - Act One - Scene 2: "Marsch! Fort in den Wald!" (Mutter), Hansel und Gretel - Act One - Scene 3: "Ho ho! Wer spek-spektakelt mir da im Haus" (Mutter - Vater), Hansel und Gretel - Act One - Scene 3: "Ho ho! Wer spek-spektakelt mir da im Haus" (Mutter - Vater), Wiegenlied, Wiegenlied, Weihnachten, Weihnachten, Herz und Wald, Herz und Wald, Rosmarin, Rosmarin, Zeitlied, Zeitlied, Die Wallfahrt nach Kevlaar : Ballade, Die Wallfahrt nach Kevlaar : Ballade, An die Nachtigall, An die Nachtigall, Beim Schlafengehen, Beim Schlafengehen, Der Ungenannten, Der Ungenannten, Mein Grus, Mein Grus, Hansel und Gretel - Act Three - Scene 4: "Erlost - befreit - fur alle Zeit!" (Kinder - Gretel - Hansel - Vater), Hansel und Gretel - Act Three - Scene 4: "Erlost - befreit - fur alle Zeit!" (Kinder - Gretel - Hansel - Vater), Reiterlied, Reiterlied, Oft sinn ich hin und wieder, Oft sinn ich hin und wieder, Am Rhein, Am Rhein, Der kranke Sohn und die Mutter, Der kranke Sohn und die Mutter, Hansel und Gretel: Akt I - 1 Szene "Bruderchen - komm tanz' mit mir - Tanzduett" (Gretel - Hansel), Hansel und Gretel: Akt I - 1 Szene "Bruderchen - komm tanz' mit mir - Tanzduett" (Gretel - Hansel), Liebesorakel, Liebesorakel, Albumblatt for Violin and Piano, Albumblatt for Violin and Piano, An das Christuskind, An das Christuskind, Hansel und Gretel - Act Three - Scene 1: "Der kleine Taumann heiss'ich" (Taumann), Hansel und Gretel - Act Three - Scene 1: "Der kleine Taumann heiss'ich" (Taumann), 's Strausle, 's Strausle, Hansel und Gretel - Act Three - Scene III "Der Teig ist gar - wir konnen voran machen", Hansel und Gretel - Act Three - Scene III "Der Teig ist gar - wir konnen voran machen" Similar People Adelheid Wette, Richard Wagner, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Gustav Mahler, Bedrich Smetana | ||
Engelbert Humperdinck ( [ˈɛŋl̩bɛʁt ˈhʊmpɐdɪŋk]; 1 September 1854 – 27 September 1921) was a German composer, best known for his opera Hansel and Gretel.
Contents
Biography
Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province in 1854. After receiving piano lessons, he produced his first composition at the age of seven. His first attempts at works for the stage were two singspiele written when he was 13. His parents disapproved of his plans for a career in music and encouraged him to study architecture. Nevertheless, he began taking music classes under Ferdinand Hiller and Isidor Seiss at the Cologne Conservatory in 1872. In 1876, he won a scholarship that enabled him to go to Munich, where he studied with Franz Lachner and later with Josef Rheinberger. In 1879, he won the first Mendelssohn Award given by the Mendelssohn Stiftung (foundation) in Berlin. He went to Italy and became acquainted with Richard Wagner in Naples. Wagner invited him to join him in Bayreuth, and during 1880 and 1881 Humperdinck assisted in the production of Parsifal. He also served as music tutor to Wagner's son, Siegfried.
After winning another prize, Humperdinck traveled through Italy, France, and Spain and spent two years teaching at the Gran Teatre del Liceu Conservatory in Barcelona. In 1887, he returned to Cologne. He was appointed professor at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt in 1890 and also teacher of harmony at Julius Stockhausen's Vocal School. By this time he had composed several works for chorus and a Humoreske for small orchestra, which enjoyed a vogue in Germany.
Hänsel und Gretel
Humperdinck's reputation rests chiefly on his opera Hänsel und Gretel, which he began work on in Frankfurt in 1890. He first composed four songs to accompany a puppet show his nieces were giving at home. Then, using a libretto by his sister Adelheid Wette rather loosely based on the version of the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, he composed a singspiel of 16 songs with piano accompaniment and connecting dialogue. By January 1891 he had begun working on a complete orchestration.
The opera premiered in Weimar on 23 December 1893, under the baton of Richard Strauss. With its highly original synthesis of Wagnerian techniques and traditional German folk songs, Hansel and Gretel was an instant and overwhelming success.
Hansel and Gretel has always been Humperdinck's most popular work. In 1923 the Royal Opera House (London) chose it for their first complete radio opera broadcast. Eight years later, it was the first opera transmitted live from the Metropolitan Opera (New York).
Later career
In 1896, Kaiser Wilhelm II made Humperdinck a Professor and he went to live at Boppard. Four years later, however, he went to Berlin where he was appointed head of a Meister-Schule of composition. His students included the Basque composer Andrés Isasi. Among his other stage works are:
While composing those works, Humperdinck held various teaching positions of distinction and collaborated in the theater, providing incidental music for a number of Max Reinhardt's productions in Berlin, for example, for Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice in 1905.
Although recognized as a disciple of Wagner rather than an innovator, Humperdinck was nevertheless the first composer to use Sprechgesang—a vocal technique halfway between singing and speaking—in his melodrama Königskinder (1897).
In 1914, Humperdinck seems to have applied for the post of director of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Australia, but with the outbreak of World War I it became unthinkable for a German to hold that position, and the job went instead to Belgium's Henri Verbrugghen. Also in 1914, Humperdinck signed the Manifesto of the Ninety-Three, declaring support for German military actions during early World War I.
On 5 January 1912 Humperdinck suffered a severe stroke. Although he recovered, his left hand remained permanently paralyzed. He continued to compose, completing Gaudeamus with the help of his son, Wolfram, in 1918. On 26 September 1921 Humperdinck attended a performance of Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz in Neustrelitz, Wolfram's first effort as a stage director. He suffered a heart attack during the performance and died the next day from a second heart attack. The Berlin State Opera performed Hansel and Gretel in his memory a few weeks later. He was buried at the Südwestkirchhof in Stahnsdorf near Berlin.
For a list of Humperdinck's pupils, see this list. In 1965, British singer Arnold Dorsey named himself after the composer. The main belt asteroid 9913 Humperdinck, discovered in 1977, was named after the composer as well.