Otto Nicolai

Otto Nicolai

Carl Otto Ehrenfried Nicolai (9 June 1810 – 11 May 1849) was a German composer, conductor, and founder of the Vienna Philharmonic. Nicolai is best known for his operatic version of Shakespeare's comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor as Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor. In addition to five operas, Nicolai composed lieder, works for orchestra, chorus, ensemble, and solo instruments.

Biography

Nicolai, a child prodigy, was born in Königsberg, Prussia. He received his first musical education from his father, Carl Ernst Daniel Nicolai, who was also a composer and musical director. During his childhood his parents divorced, and while still a youth, early in June 1826, Nicolai ran away from his parents' "loveless" home,[1] taking refuge in Stargard with a senior legal official called August Adler who treated the musical prodigy like a son and, when Nikolai was seventeen, sent him to Berlin to study with Carl Friedrich Zelter.

After initial successes in Germany, including his first symphony (1831) and public concerts, he became musician to the Prussian embassy in Rome. When Giuseppe Verdi declined the libretto of Il proscritto by the proprietors of La Scala in Milan, it was offered instead to Nicolai. Later, Nicolai refused a libretto by the same author, and it went to Verdi, whose Nabucco was his first early success. All of Nicolai's operas were originally written in Italian, the sole exception being his last and best known opera, The Merry Wives of Windsor, written in German. At one time he was more popular in Italy than Verdi himself was.[2]

During the early 1840s, Nicolai established himself as a major figure in the concert life of Vienna. In 1844 he was offered the position, vacated by Felix Mendelssohn, of Kapellmeister at the Berlin Cathedral; but he did not reestablish himself in Berlin until the last year of his life. On 11 May 1849, two months after the premiere of The Merry Wives of Windsor, and only two days after his appointment as Hofkapellmeister at the Berlin Staatsoper, he collapsed and died from a stroke. On the very same day of his death, he was elected a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Arts.

Nicolai was portrayed by Hans Nielsen in the 1940 film Falstaff in Vienna.

Works

Operas

TitleGenreSub­divisionsLibrettoCompositionPremière datePlace, theatre
Figlia abbandonataLa figlia abbandonata  1837unfinished 
Rosmonda d'Inghilterra (given at the first performance as: Enrico II) melodramma serio2 actsRomaniFelice Romani1837–18381839-11-2626 November 1839Trieste, Teatro Grande
TemplarioIl templariomelodramma3 actsMariniGirolamo Maria Marini, after Walter Scott1839–18401840-02-1111 February 1840Turin, Teatro Regio
Gildippe ed Odoardomelodramma3 actsSoleraTemistocle Solera18401840-12-2626 December 1840Genoa
ProscrittoIl proscritto 3 actsRossiGaetano Rossi18411841-03-1313 March 1841 Milan, La Scala
Heimkehr des VerbanntenDie Heimkehr des Verbannten (revision of Il proscritto)tragische Oper3 actsKapperSiegfried Kapper18431844-02-033 February 1844Vienna, Theater am Kärntnertor
TempelritterDer Tempelritter (revision of Il templario) 3 actsKapperSiegfried Kapper18451845-12-2020 December 1845Vienna, Theater am Kärntnertor
LustigenDie lustigen Weiber von Windsorkomische-fantastische Oper3 actsMosenthalSalomon Hermann Mosenthal, after William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor1845–18461849-03-099 March 1849Berlin, Hofoper

Other

Songs and duets

Works for piano

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Biographical on-line note (in German)
  2. ↑ John Cargher. "The Italian job", ABC Radio 24 Hours, November 2001, p. 42

Sources

Attribution
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