Otto Nicolai

Carl Otto Ehrenfried Nicolai ( born June 9, 1810 in Königsberg, † May 11, 1849 in Berlin) was a German composer. Is best known for his opera The Merry Wives of Windsor; He also founded the Vienna Philharmonic.

Life

From his father, the music director Carl Ernst Daniel Nicolai, Otto Nicolai received his first music lessons; However, in early June 1826, he fled his loveless childhood home and found refuge in Stargard in the division Auditeur August Adler, who received him as a son, and at the age of 17 years sent to Berlin to study. The age of twenty he entered the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin. After his studies at the Royal Institute for Church Music with Carl Friedrich Zelter and Bernhard Klein from 1827 to 1830, he received in 1833 the position of organist at the Prussian Legation chapel in Rome. Here he received from 1835 lessons with Giuseppe Baini. He studied in Rome intensively with the works of Palestrina and other old Italian classics.

1837 joined Otto Nicolai as Kapellmeister at the Vienna Kärntnertortheater Conradin Kreutzer under, but went back to Rome in 1838 and began with opera compositions. In 1841 he returned to Vienna, where he took the place of the first Kapellmeister at the Vienna Court Opera. He founded the Philharmonic concerts and at the same time, the Vienna Philharmonic.

The King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, dedicated to Our Father and the Festival Overture " A Mighty Fortress " for the 300 - year celebration of the University of Königsberg paved gradually relations with Berlin, where Nicolai was appointed in 1847 as conductor of the Royal Cathedral Choir and as conductor of the Royal Opera House.

Otto Nicolai composed operas in addition to numerous songs, sacred and secular choral works. About his work, however, radiates his most famous opera The Merry Wives of Windsor, which premiered on March 9, 1849 in Berlin. Eight weeks later he died in Berlin from a stroke and was buried in the cemetery Dorotheenstädtischer II in Liesenstrasse. His grave site is located, as an honorary grave of the city of Berlin, in the E, ​​G1.

Works

Operas

  • Enrico secondo ( Rosmonda d' Inghilterra ) ( November 26, 1839, Trieste, libretto by F. Romani )
  • Il Templario ( February 11, 1840, Turin, Teatro Reggio, Libretto: Girolamo Maria Marini ), after Walter Scott's Ivanhoe
  • Gildippe ed ODOARDO ( December 26, 1840, Genoa, libretto by Solera Temistocle )
  • Il Proscritto ( March 13, 1841, Milan, Teatro alla Scala, libretto by G. Rossi)
  • The return of the exiles ( February 3, 1844, Vienna, libretto: S. Kapper to Il Proscritto )
  • The Merry Wives of Windsor ( March 9, 1849, Berlin, libretto by Hermann Salomon Mosenthal by William Shakespeare)

Symphonies

Orchestral works

  • Christmas overture on the chorale " Vom Himmel hoch " ( 1833)
  • Imagination with bravura Variations on Norma for Piano and Orchestra, Op 25
  • Bravura variations on themes from the opera " La Sonnambula " by Bellini, arranged for Clarinet and Orchestra, Op 26
  • Church festival overture on the chorale " A Mighty Fortress is Our God " for orchestra, choir and organ, Op 31

Sacred choral works

  • Te Deum (1832 )
  • Mass No. 1 in D major (1832 /44)
  • Psalmus 54 (1834 )
  • Hymn " Benedicta et it venerabilis virgo Maria " (1834 )
  • Pater noster, Op 33 (1836 )
  • Assumpta est Maria, Op 38 (1846 )
  • The 13th Psalm (1846 )
  • The 100th Psalm (1848 )
  • The 84th Psalm (1848 )
  • Saying, "Lord, I have loved " (1848 )
  • The 97th Psalm (1848 )
  • The 31st Psalm (1849 )

Songs ( selection)

  • When the evening gently, op 2a
  • The shepherd in May / men sense, Opus 3
  • Farewell, Opus 13
  • Yours for ever, Op 14
  • As the day creeps me / The Swallow, op 15
  • Farewell / To the Distant / Randino / The faithful maiden, Opus 16
  • Sleeping heart son, op 19
  • Restless Love, Op 23
  • The tear, op 30
  • The sedative / Faithful boy / storming, storming, you winter wind, op 34
  • The cuckoo / flea Jammer / You're too small, my Hänselein, op 35
  • Autumn Song, Op 37

Piano Works (Selection)

  • Six danses brilliant
  • Rondo capriccioso
  • Sonata in D minor, Op 27
  • Moon Waltz
  • Etude " Adieu à Liszt", Op 28
  • 3 Etudes, Op 40
The Merry Wives of Windsor (opera) Josef Kriehuber Frederick William IV of Prussia Temistocle Solera Salomon Hermann Mosenthal Neue Deutsche Biographie Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Karl Anton Eckert Felix Otto Dessoff Hans Richter (conductor) Wilhelm Jahn Gustav Mahler Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr. Integrated Authority File
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