Franz Hauser (b. Jan. 12, 1794 in Krasowitz (Krasoviče), Bohemia, d. Aug. 14 1870 in Freiburg im Briesgau) was a singer, voice teacher, and music manuscript collector.
At his Father's insistence, he first studied medicine, but he then studied singing with Johann Wenzel Tomaschek and composition with oboist Josef Triebensee.
He made is stage debut in 1817 in Prague as Sarastro in Mozart's Magic Flute. He found great success at the opera theaters in Vienna, Leipzig, and Berlin. He retired from the stage in 1838 and taught singing in Vienna. In 1846 he was appointed as director of the newly-established conservatory in Munich (now the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München), serving as its director until 1864. He retired in 1865 to Karlsruhe and two years later to Freiburg im Briesgau.
Contemporary critics considered Hauser cold as an actor but approved of his pure voice. He was known for his interpretation of Weber and as Figaro (both Rossini's and Mozart's), Bertram, William Tell, and Spohr's Faust.
Hauser had many students including Jenny Lind and Henriette Sontag. He wrote a popular singing manual, Gesanglehre für Lehrer und Lernende (Leipzig 1866) (freely available through Google books). As a composer, he was known for his songs. His correspondence with composer Moritz Hauptmann was published in two volumes in 1871.
Hauser's greatest significance today is as a collector of musical manuscripts–most notably of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach, assembling the greatest 19th century collection of that composer's manuscripts. He was a consultant for the Bach Gesellschaft edition and prepared a thematic catalog of Bach's works. Most of Hauser's Bach manuscripts (including 19 cantatas, the accompanied sontatas for violin, and the English suites for keyboard) were acquired by the Königlichen Bibliothek (now the Berlin State Library) in 1904. Others were destroyed in 1945. Parts of his collection are also in the Darmsdat Landesbibliothek and the Harvard University Loeb Music Library.
His son, Moritz Hauser (1827–1857) became a theater director in Königsberg and a minor composer.