Joseph Sonnleithner

Joseph Ferdinand Sonnleithner (* March 3, 1766 in Vienna, † December 25, 1835 in Vienna ) was an Austrian librettist, theater director and archivist.

Life

He was the son of Christopher Sonnleithner, brother of Ignaz Sonnleithner and uncle of Franz Grillparzer and Leopold von Sonnleithner. From 1804 to 1814 he was secretary of the Court Theatre in Vienna and wrote many librettos, among other things, for Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven, Faniska by Luigi Cherubini and Agnes Sorel Adalbert Gyrowetz. Sonnleithner was one of the founders of the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna ( plaques in the foyer of the Musikverein and at the house trench 14 ) and one of the earliest folksong collector in Austria. A close friendship with him and his nephew Franz Schubert Grillparzer. For his portrait gallery, which is now kept in the Friends of Music Society, he gave Anton Depauly also a Schubert portrait commissioned. His humor and his witticisms that circulated for decades in Viennese society, were legend. " A very meritorious and witty man " (Joseph Haydn Johann Peter Salomon on May 15, 1799), " also a prankster like his brother " ( Franz von Hartmann in his family chronicle ).