Emmerich Kálmán

Emmerich Kálmán (also: Imre Kálmán [ ka ː lma imrɛ ː n], actually: Imre Koppenstein; born October 24, 1882 in Siofok, † October 30th 1953 in Paris) was a Hungarian composer. He wrote mainly operettas and was with Franz Lehár and another one of the founders of the Silver operetta.

Life

Emmerich Kálmán was born Imre Koppenstein. He was the son of the Jewish grain dealer Karl Kopp Stein and his wife Paula, nee Singer. In 1892 he moved with his family from Lake Balaton to Budapest and changed his surname at the entrance examination into Budapest Protestant school on Kálmán. From 1900 he studied at the Budapest University of Jura, in parallel, he enrolled in the composition class of Hans Koessler at the State Academy of Music in Budapest, where his fellow students were, among others, Béla Bartók, Viktor Jacobi and Albert Szirmai. A first job after graduation was Kálmán as a music critic for the daily newspaper " Pesti Napló ".

Already in 1907 he received the Franz -Joseph- price of Budapest. After the successful premiere of his first operetta Tatárjárás in Budapest in 1908, he moved to Vienna. With the following works, such as The Gypsy Princess (1915), Countess Maritza (1924 ) and The Circus Princess (1926 ) he became one of the most famous operetta composers on both sides of the Atlantic.

As a Jew, he had to go to the Austria 1938 Vienna, Austria terminal leave and emigrated via Zurich first to Paris and from there in 1940 to the United States. There he wrote in 1942 with Lorenz Hart some numbers for the planned but not completed musical Miss Underground, but none of the songs ever published. 1945 used Kálmán music partially for Marinka, with new lyrics by George Marion Jr.

After the Second World War, he returned to Europe and settled in Paris in 1945 down. Only in 1949 he returned to Austria, which gave him anything but a warm welcome, but instead greeted him with a press campaign, which aimed to expropriate his villa in Vienna; after another stay in New York, he eventually went to Paris in 1951.

Kálmán was twice with the Jewish actress Vera Makinskaya (actually Marya Mendelsohn, born on 22 August 1907 in Perm ) married that he had divorced, but already returned a year later to him in 1942. The reasons for the return, there is conflicting information. In 1929 he had married Vera Natasha, with whom he had three children.

Emmerich Kálmán died in Paris in 1953. His last work, the oriented on Broadway Cowboy operetta Arizona Lady, had worked at the Kálmán since 1948/49, was completed by his son Charles. The premiere took place on January 1, 1954 posthumously in Bayerischer Rundfunk place ( the band has since been released on CD by the Operetta Archives, Los Angeles ). The stage premiere was two months later in Bern.

His honorary devoted grave is located in Vienna's Central Cemetery (Group 31B, number 12, number 10). 1955, the Kalman street in Vienna's Hietzing was named after him. In addition, the asteroid 4992 Kalman was named after him. The night train Munich - Vienna - Budapest ( EN 462/463 ) is named " Kalman Imre ".

Works

From Kálmán operettas following come from:

  • Tatárjárás 1908
  • An autumn maneuvers, 1909 ( German reworking of Tatárjárás; premiere January 22, 1909 at the Theater an der Wien)
  • Az Obšitoš, 1910
  • The Gypsy violinist, 1912 ( libretto Fritz Grünbaum and Julius Wilhelm; premiere October 11, 1912 at the Johann Strauss Theatre )
  • The Blue House, 1912
  • The Little King, 1912
  • I gave gold for iron, 1914
  • Zsuzsi kisasszony [" Miss Susie" ], 1915
  • The Gypsy Princess, 1915
  • The Faschingsfee, 1917
  • The Holland females, 1919
  • The Bayadere, 1921
  • Countess Maritza, 1924
  • The Circus Princess, 1926
  • Golden Dawn, 1927
  • The Duchess of Chicago, 1928
  • The Violet of Montmartre, 1930
  • Ronny, 1931 ( successful sound film operetta )
  • The Devil Rider, 1932
  • Empress Josephine, 1936
  • Marinka, 1945
  • Arizona Lady, 1954

Films

Emmerich Kálmán's life was filmed in a very free form and partially reversed sequence of events in 1958, directed by Harald Philipp with the actors Gerhard Ried man, Rudolf Schock, Elma Karlowa, Marina Orschel and Hubert von Meyerinck under the title The Czardas King.

Kálmán's only Broadway operetta Golden Dawn was filmed in Hollywood in 1930 with Vivienne Segal in the lead role.

Victor Jacobi Die Zirkusprinzessin Der Zigeunerprimas Kaiserin Josephine Gerhard Riedmann Neue Deutsche Biographie Deutsches Historisches Museum Integrated Authority File
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