Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck was born on September 1, 1854, Siegburg, near Bonn, Germany. He began composing from a young age, finishing his first work when he was only seven and even attempting some works for the stage by the time he was thirteen. When he was eighteen, he began studying at the Cologne Conservatory under Ferdinand Hiller and Isidor Seiss. He received scholarships that would take him, first, to study in Munich with Franz Lochner andJosef Rheinberger and then to Italy. While there he met Richard Wagner and worked on his opera Parsifal and tutored his son Siegfried. His music was heavily influenced by Wagner's style and orchestration.
He traveled around Europe and accepted positions to teach, spending two years at the Gran Teatre del Liceu Conservatory in Barcelona and then at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt in 1890. This is when he started working on the work he has remained the most famous for - his opera Hansel and Gretel. The libretto was written by his sister Adelheid Wette and the work debuted December 23, 1893, in Weimar with Richard Strauss conducting.
In 1896, he moved to Boppard, Germany, where he continued to teach. He also continued composing, though none of his later works would be as popular as Hansel and Gretel. He composed six more operas, incidental music for plays, songs, piano works, and some orchestral music including a string quartet.
He married Hedwig Taxer, though I'm not sure of the date, and they had two children, a daughter Olga who died very young and a son Wolfram. He got to see his son direct Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz in Neustrelitz, though he died of a second heart attack (the first being during the performance) the next day, which was September 27, 1921. Dr. B. J. Kreuzberg in his article "Engelbert Humperdinck in Boppard" wrote, "Dizzying world success and an excess of recognition have not changed Humperdinck: He remains the same balanced, modest, proper, kind, humorous and loving person, who - like his intellectual and poetic wife Hedwig - valued a simple, private family life and cultivated many hearty friendships this side of the border and beyond."
I wrote this biography using information from the following websites, which I accessed on July 12, 2016: britannica.com, wikipedia.org, and 52composers.com.
He traveled around Europe and accepted positions to teach, spending two years at the Gran Teatre del Liceu Conservatory in Barcelona and then at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt in 1890. This is when he started working on the work he has remained the most famous for - his opera Hansel and Gretel. The libretto was written by his sister Adelheid Wette and the work debuted December 23, 1893, in Weimar with Richard Strauss conducting.
In 1896, he moved to Boppard, Germany, where he continued to teach. He also continued composing, though none of his later works would be as popular as Hansel and Gretel. He composed six more operas, incidental music for plays, songs, piano works, and some orchestral music including a string quartet.
He married Hedwig Taxer, though I'm not sure of the date, and they had two children, a daughter Olga who died very young and a son Wolfram. He got to see his son direct Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz in Neustrelitz, though he died of a second heart attack (the first being during the performance) the next day, which was September 27, 1921. Dr. B. J. Kreuzberg in his article "Engelbert Humperdinck in Boppard" wrote, "Dizzying world success and an excess of recognition have not changed Humperdinck: He remains the same balanced, modest, proper, kind, humorous and loving person, who - like his intellectual and poetic wife Hedwig - valued a simple, private family life and cultivated many hearty friendships this side of the border and beyond."
I wrote this biography using information from the following websites, which I accessed on July 12, 2016: britannica.com, wikipedia.org, and 52composers.com.
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Overture from Hansel and Gretel
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Sir Georg Solti, conductor |
"Evening Prayer" from Hansel and Gretel
Clare Higgins and Jenny Nathans, vocalists (the pianist's name isn't listed) |