Mischa Spoliansky

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Mischa Spoliansky (born 28. December 1898 in Białystok, died 28. June 1985 in London was a Russian and British composer.

[edit] Life

Born into a musical family, his father was an opera singer and his sinster would later become a pianis and his brother a Cellist. After the birth of Mischa the family moved to Warschau, and later Kalisz. After the early death of his mother, the family moved to Vienna.

Spoliansky's early musical education in piano, violin and cellow was continued in Dresden under Prof. Mark Guensberg. At the age of ten Mischa made his public debut.

Shortly thereafter his father died and Spoliansky moved to Königsberg (Prussia) where he had relatives. In 1914 however as a result of the war he had to flee to Berlin, where his brother worked as a cellist.

Spoliansky worked in a coffeehouse as a pianist in order to continue his musical education at the Stern'sches Konservatorium. Spoliansky's first compositions were played by the UFA-Filmtheaterorchester in the Friedrichstraße. In addtion he worked as a composer and pianist in a Russian emigre cabarett. There Victor Hollaender and Werner Richard Heymann heard him and invited him to write and play for the literary cabarett "Schall und Rauch" in the basement of the Großen Schauspielhauses, which Max Reinhardt had founded in 1919. Spoliansky set the texts of Kurt Tucholsky, Klabund, Joachim Ringelnatz accompanied stars such as Gussy Holl, Paul O’Montis, Rosa Valetti und Trude Hesterberg. Under the pseudonym „Arno Billing“ he composed in 1920 the Melody for the first homosexual anthum called Das lila Lied, which he dedicated to Magnus Hirschfeld and was published with other texts such as Sei meine Frau auf vierundzwanzig Stunden.

1922 lernt er den Dichter Marcellus Schiffer und die Diseuse Margo Lion kennen, außerdem heiratet er in diesem Jahr die Tänzerin Elsbeth (Eddy) Reinwald. 1925 begleitet Spoliansky Richard Tauber bei der Schallplatteneinspielung von Schuberts "Winterreise". In seiner Revue Es liegt in der Luft (Text von Marcellus Schiffer) tritt 1928 Marlene Dietrich auf. Ein Jahr später wird sie in Spolianskys "Zwei Krawatten" (Text von Georg Kaiser) von Josef von Sternberg entdeckt, der die Hauptdarstellerin für den "Blauen Engel" sucht.

Es folgen 1930 "Wie werde ich reich und glücklich?", 1931 "Alles Schwindel", 1932 "Rufen Sie Herrn Plim" und "Das Haus dazwischen", 1933 "100 Meter Glück".

1933 emigriert Spoliansky nach London. Dort beginnt er eine zweite Karriere als Filmkomponist. Die rasche Einbürgerung als britischer Staatsangehöriger gelingt nicht zuletzt Dank des Schlagers "Heute Nacht oder nie" aus dem Film "Das Lied einer Nacht" (1932), der Spoliansky Weltruhm verschaffte.

Inzwischen spielen die Theater gelegentlich wieder Werke von Spoliansky, so beispielsweise in dieser Spielzeit (2004/2005) "Zwei Krawatten" am Theater Dortmund und "Rufen Sie Herrn Plim" an den Städtischen Bühnen Münster (2002/2003) und später am Theater in Kassel.