Franz von Suppé or
Francesco Suppé Demelli (April 18, 1819, Spalato (
SplitSplit is the largest Dalmatian city, the second-largest urban centre in Croatia, and the seat of Split-Dalmatia County...
) – ,
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
) was an
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
n composer of light operas from
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
. He was a
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
and
conductorConducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles often have conductors.-Nomenclature:...
of the
RomanticRomantic music is a musicological term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in European music history, from about 1800 to 1900....
period notable for his four dozen
operettaOperetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Operetta in French:...
s.
Suppé was born as
Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo Cavaliere Suppé Demelli in 1819 in
SplitSplit is the largest Dalmatian city, the second-largest urban centre in Croatia, and the seat of Split-Dalmatia County...
,
DalmatiaThe Kingdom of Dalmatia was an administrative division of the Habsburg Monarchy from 1815 to 1918. Its capital was Zadar.-History:...
,
Austrian EmpireThe Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire founded on a remnant of the Holy Roman Empire centered on what is today's Austria that officially lasted from 1804 to 1867...
, in the territory of today's
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
. He was a descendant of a
BelgianThe Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO...
family that probably emigrated there in the 18th century.
Franz von Suppé or
Francesco Suppé Demelli (April 18, 1819, Spalato (
SplitSplit is the largest Dalmatian city, the second-largest urban centre in Croatia, and the seat of Split-Dalmatia County...
) – ,
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
) was an
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
n composer of light operas from
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
. He was a
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
and
conductorConducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles often have conductors.-Nomenclature:...
of the
RomanticRomantic music is a musicological term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in European music history, from about 1800 to 1900....
period notable for his four dozen
operettaOperetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Operetta in French:...
s.
Life and education
Suppé was born as
Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo Cavaliere Suppé Demelli in 1819 in
SplitSplit is the largest Dalmatian city, the second-largest urban centre in Croatia, and the seat of Split-Dalmatia County...
,
DalmatiaThe Kingdom of Dalmatia was an administrative division of the Habsburg Monarchy from 1815 to 1918. Its capital was Zadar.-History:...
,
Austrian EmpireThe Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire founded on a remnant of the Holy Roman Empire centered on what is today's Austria that officially lasted from 1804 to 1867...
, in the territory of today's
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
. He was a descendant of a
BelgianThe Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO...
family that probably emigrated there in the 18th century. His father was a civil servant in the service of the Austrian Empire like his father before him, and his mother Viennese by birth. He was a distant relative of
Gaetano DonizettiDomenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. Donizetti's most famous work is Lucia di Lammermoor , and arguably his most immediately recognizable piece of music is the aria "Una furtiva lagrima" from L'elisir d'amore...
. He simplified and Germanized his name when in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
, and changed "cavaliere" to "von". Outside Germanic circles, his name may appear on programs as Francesco Suppé-Demelli.
He spent his childhood in
ZadarZadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Zadar faces the islands of Ugljan and Pašman, from which it is separated by the narrow Zadar Strait. The promontory on which the old city stands used to be separated from the...
, where he had his first music lessons and began to compose at an early age. As a boy he had no encouragement in music from his father, but was helped by a local bandmaster and by the Spalato cathedral choirmaster. His
Missa dalmatica dates from this early period. As a teenager in
CremonaCremona is a city in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po River in the middle of the Pianura Padana...
, Suppé studied
fluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
and harmony. His first extant composition is a Roman Catholic
MassThe Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the fixed portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...
, which premiered at a Franciscan church in Zadar in 1832. He moved to
PaduaPadua is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice , in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area, having a population of c...
to study law, a field of study not chosen by him, but continued to study music. Suppé was also a singer, making his debut in the role of Dulcamara in Donizetti's
L'elisir d'amoreL'elisir d'amore is a melodramma giocoso in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel-François-Esprit Auber's Le philtre .The premiere was at the Teatro della Canobbiana, Milan on 12 May 1832.- Performance...
at the
SopronSopron ; , , Latin: Scarbantia) is a city in Hungary on the Austrian border, near the Neusiedler/Lake Fertő.- Ancient times-13th century :...
Theater in 1842.
He was invited to Vienna by Franz Pokorny, the director of the
Theater in der JosefstadtThe Theater in der Josefstadt is a theater in Vienna in the eighth district of Josefstadt. It was founded in 1788 and is the oldest still performing theater in Vienna...
. In Vienna, after studying with
Ignaz von SeyfriedIgnaz Xaver Ritter von Seyfried was an Austrian musician, conductor and composer.Seyfried was born in Vienna. According to a statement in his handwritten memoirs he was a pupil of both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Albrechtsberger. He published Albrechtsberger's complete written works after...
and
Simon SechterSimon Sechter was an Austrian music theorist, teacher, organist, conductor and composer.Sechter was born in Friedberg , Bohemia, then part of the Austrian Empire, and moved to Vienna in 1804, succeeding Jan Václav Voříšek as court organist there in 1824. In 1810 he began teaching piano and voice...
, he conducted in the theater, without pay at first, but with the opportunity to present his own operas there. Eventually, Suppé wrote music for over a hundred productions at the
Theater in der Josefstadt as well as the
CarltheaterThe Carltheater was a theatre in Vienna. It was in the suburbs in Leopoldstadt at Praterstraße 31 .It was the successor to the Leopoldstädter Theater. After a series of financial difficulties, that theater had been sold in 1838 to the director, Carl Carl, who continued to run it in parallel to his...
in
LeopoldstadtLeopoldstadt is Vienna's second district. There are 95,238 inhabitants over . It is situated in the heart of the city and, together with Brigittenau , forms a large island surrounded by the Danube Canal and, to the north, the Danube. It is named after Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I...
, at the
Theater an der WienThe Theater an der Wien is an opera house in Vienna.-Origin:The theater opened in 1801 and was the brainchild of the Viennese theatrical impresario Emanuel Schikaneder, who is best known to history as Mozart's librettist and collaborator on the opera The Magic Flute...
, and a theater at Baden. He also put on some landmark opera productions, such as the 1846 production of
MeyerbeerGiacomo Meyerbeer was a noted German-born opera composer, and the first great exponent of Grand Opera. At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer and producer of opera in Europe, yet is virtually unknown today.-Early years:Meyerbeer was born to a Jewish...
's
Les HuguenotsLes Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps.-Background:Les Huguenots was some five years in creation...
with
Jenny LindJohanna Maria Lind , better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish opera singer, often known as the "Swedish Nightingale"...
.
Franz von Suppé died in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
on May 21, 1895 and is buried on the
ZentralfriedhofThe Zentralfriedhof is situated in the district of Simmering, Simmeringer Hauptstraße 230–244, Vienna 1110, Austria, and is the largest and most famous cemetery among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries....
.
Works
Two of Suppé's comic operas have been performed at the
Metropolitan OperaThe Metropolitan Opera Association of New York City, founded in April 1880, is a major presenter of all types of opera including Grand Opera. Peter Gelb is the company's general manager. The music director is James Levine....
in
New YorkNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
,
Boccaccio and
Donna Juanita, but they failed to become repertoire works. He composed about 30 operettas and 180 farces, ballets, and other stage works. Though the bulk of Suppé's operas have sunk into relative obscurity, the
overtureOverture in music is the instrumental introduction to a dramatic, choral or, occasionally, instrumental composition...
s, particularly
Leichte KavallerieLeichte Kavallerie is an operetta in three acts by Franz von Suppé, with a libretto by Hans Bodenstedt. It was first performed in Carlstheater, Vienna on 21st March 1866. While much of the operetta lies in relative obscurity, the overture is one of von Suppé's most well-known pieces...
(
Light Cavalry) and
Dichter und Bauer (
Poet & Peasant), have survived and some of them have been used in all sorts of soundtracks for
movieFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
s,
cartoonThe word cartoon has various meanings, based on several very different forms of visual art and illustration. The term has evolved over time....
s,
advertisementsAdvertising is a form of communication used to influence individuals to purchase products or services or support political candidates or ideas. Frequently it communicates a message that includes the name of the product or service and how that product or service could potentially benefit the consumer...
, and so on, in addition to being frequently played at symphonic "
popsA pops orchestra is an orchestra that plays popular music and show tunes as well as well-known classical works. Pops orchestras are generally organised in large cities and are distinct from the more "highbrow" symphony or philharmonic orchestras which also may exist in the same city...
" concerts. Some of Suppé's operas are still regularly performed in Europe; Peter Branscombe, writing in the
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, characterizes Suppé's song
Das ist mein Österreich as "Austria's second
national songA national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
".
Suppé retained links with his native Dalmatia, occasionally visiting Split, Zadar, and
ŠibenikŠibenik is a historic town in Croatia, population 51,553 . It is located in central Dalmatia where the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea...
. Some of his works are linked with Dalmatia, in particular his operetta
The Mariner's Return, the action of which takes place in Hvar. After retiring from conducting, Suppé continued to write operas, but shifted his focus to sacred music. He also wrote a
RequiemThe Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as the Missa pro defunctis or Missa defunctorum , is a liturgical service of the Roman Catholic Church celebrated by the priest presider for the repose of the soul of a particular deceased person or persons...
for theater director Franz Pokorny, three Masses, songs, symphonies, and concert overtures.
Posthumous use
The descriptive nature of von Suppé's overtures have earned them frequent use in numerous animated cartoons:
Morgen, Mittag, und Abend in Wien (
Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna) was the central subject of the
Bugs BunnyBugs Bunny is a fictional character who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which became Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1945. In 2002, he was named by TV Guide as the greatest cartoon character of all time, an honor he shares...
cartoon,
Baton BunnyBaton Bunny is a Bugs Bunny cartoon of the Looney Tunes series, produced in 1958 and released in January 1959. It shows Bugs conducting an orchestra - with a fly bothering him. Bugs conducts, and in part, plays the overture to "Ein Morgen, ein Mittag und ein Abend in Wien" ", a composition by Franz...
. One small segment of that work, about 6 minutes in, is recognizable as the inspiration for
Dudley Do-RightDudley Do-Right was the eponymous hero of a segment on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show which parodied early 20th century melodrama and silent film in the form of the Northern genre...
's theme music.
Poet & Peasant appears in the
Fleischer StudiosFleischer Studios, Inc. was an American corporation which originated as an animation studio located at 1600 Broadway, New York City, New York. It was founded in 1921 as Inkwell Studios by brothers Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer who ran the company from its inception until Paramount Pictures, the...
1935
PopeyePopeye the Sailor is a fictional hero famous for appearing in comic strips and animated films as well as numerous television shows. He was created by Elzie Crisler Segar, and first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929...
cartoon,
The Spinach Overture and the overture to
Light Cavalry is used in Disney's 1942
Mickey MouseMickey Mouse is a comic animal cartoon character who has become an icon for The Walt Disney Company. Mickey Mouse was created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks and voiced by Walt Disney. The Walt Disney Company celebrates his birth as November 18, 1928 upon the release of Steamboat Willie...
cartoon
Symphony HourSymphony Hour was a cartoon made by Walt Disney starring Mickey Mouse in 1942.Mickey leads a radio orchestra who performs the overture to Light Cavalry . The sponsor loves the rehearsal, but come the actual performance, Goofy drops all the instruments under an elevator, destroying the instruments'...
.
List of works
Some of Suppé's more well-known works are listed here, listed with date of first performance. All are operettas unless indicated:
- Das Pensionat – November 24, 1860, Vienna
Vienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
- Die Kartenschlägerin – April 26, 1862, Kai-Theatre Vienna
- Zehn Mädchen und kein Mann – October 25, 1862, Kai-Theatre Vienna
- Flotte Burschen – April 18, 1863, Kai-Theater Vienna
- Pique Dame – Opera – June 22, 1864, Graz (revision of Die Kartenschlägerin; based on the same story
The Queen of Spades is an acclaimed short story by Alexander Pushkin about human avarice. Pushkin wrote the story in autumn 1833 in Boldino and it was first published in the literary magazine Biblioteka dlya chteniya in March 1834...
by Pushkin as was TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
[The subject's names are also transliterated Piotr, Petr, or Peter; Ilitsch, Ilich, Il'ich or Illyich; and Tschaikowski, Tschaikowsky, Chajkovskij and Chaikovsky...]
's opera The Queen of SpadesThe Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St...
)
- Die schöne Galathee
Die schöne Galathee is an operetta in two acts by Franz von Suppé to a German libretto by the composer and Poly Henrion. First performance: Carl-Theater, Vienna, 1865....
(The Beautiful Galatea) – September 9, 1865, CarltheaterThe Carltheater was a theatre in Vienna. It was in the suburbs in Leopoldstadt at Praterstraße 31 .It was the successor to the Leopoldstädter Theater. After a series of financial difficulties, that theater had been sold in 1838 to the director, Carl Carl, who continued to run it in parallel to his...
Vienna
- Leichte Kavallerie
Leichte Kavallerie is an operetta in three acts by Franz von Suppé, with a libretto by Hans Bodenstedt. It was first performed in Carlstheater, Vienna on 21st March 1866. While much of the operetta lies in relative obscurity, the overture is one of von Suppé's most well-known pieces...
(Light Cavalry) (MP3, MIDI) – March 21, 1866, Carltheater Vienna
- Banditenstreiche – April 27, 1867, Carltheater Vienna
- Die Frau Meisterin – January 20, 1868, Carltheater Vienna
- Fatinitza – January 5, 1876, Carltheater Viennahttp://www.oldandsold.com/opera/opera-37.shtml
- Boccaccio – February 1, 1879, Carltheater Vienna
- Donna Juanita – February 21, 1880, Carltheater Vienna
- Der Gascogner – March 22, 1881, Carltheater Vienna
- Bellmann – February 26, 1887, Theater an der Wien
The Theater an der Wien is an opera house in Vienna.-Origin:The theater opened in 1801 and was the brainchild of the Viennese theatrical impresario Emanuel Schikaneder, who is best known to history as Mozart's librettist and collaborator on the opera The Magic Flute...
, Vienna
- Die Jagd nach dem Glück – October 27, 1888, Carltheater Vienna
- March Oh Du mein Österreich
- Dichter und Bauer (Poet and Peasant) – August 24, 1846, Theater an der Wien, Vienna
- Overture Ein Morgen, ein Mittag und ein Abend in Wien (Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna)
- Overture Tantalusqualen
External links