Hermann Salomon Mosenthal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hermann Salomon Mosenthal (born at Cassel, 14 January 1821; died at Vienna 17 February 1877) was an Austrian dramatist and poet also known for his opera libretti.
His name is also sometimes written as Hermann Salomon von Mosenthal, Solomon Hermann Mosenthal, or Solomon Hermann von Mosenthal.
[edit] Life
Mosenthal attended the gymnasium at Cassel and the Polytechnicum in Karlsruhe. In 1841 he went to Vienna as a private teacher in the house of one Moritz von Goldschmidt. In 1846 his dramatized folk-story Der Hollander Michel was produced as in 1847 was succeeded his three-act drama Die Sklavin. Neither of these had any enduring success.
In 1849 his poetical drama Cäcilia von Albano got warm approval from both public and critics; after this he had opportunities at the Burgtheater, and Cäcilia was published in Budapest in 1851. His next production, "Deborah" (Budapest, 1849; Presburg, 1875, 6th ed. 1890), was translated into the principal modern languages. In English it became famous under the title of "Leah, the Forsaken." It was first produced at the royal theater in Berlin in 1850.
Mosenthal also wrote opera librettos:
- Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor (Otto Nicolai, Vienna, 1871)
- Die Folkunger (Kretschmer, Dresden, 1874)
- Das Goldene Kreuz (Brüll, Berlin, 1875)
- Die Königin von Saba (Carl Goldmark, Vienna, 1888)
- Die Kinder der Heide, (Anton Rubinstein)
A volume of Mosenthal's poems was published at Vienna in 1847, and a complete edition in 1866. He also wrote a novel, Jephtha's Tochter, which was included in the Neuer Deutscher Novellenschatz, No. 2, Munich, 1884. A collected edition of his writings, for the arrangement of which he had left instructions, was published in six volumes at Stuttgart in 1878; with a portrait.
