Otto Nicolai

Otto Nicolai in 1842

Carl Otto Ehrenfried Nicolai (9 June 1810 – 11 May 1849) was a German composer, conductor, and one of the founders 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, taking refuge in Stargard with a senior legal official called August Adler who treated the musical prodigy like a son and, when Nicolai 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 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 even more popular in Italy than Verdi.

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 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

Title Genre Sub­divisions Libretto Composition Première date Place, theatre
La figlia abbandonata     1837 unfinished  
Rosmonda d'Inghilterra (given at the first performance as: Enrico II) melodramma serio 2 acts Felice Romani 1837–1838 26 November 1839 Trieste, Teatro Grande
Il templario melodramma 3 acts Girolamo Maria Marini, after Walter Scott 1839–1840 11 February 1840 Turin, Teatro Regio
Gildippe ed Odoardo melodramma 3 acts Temistocle Solera 1840 26 December 1840 Genoa
Il proscritto   3 acts Gaetano Rossi 1841 13 March 1841 Milan, La Scala
Die Heimkehr des Verbannten (revision of Il proscritto) tragische Oper 3 acts Siegfried Kapper 1843 3 February 1844 Vienna, Theater am Kärntnertor
Der Tempelritter (revision of Il templario)   3 acts Siegfried Kapper 1845 20 December 1845 Vienna, Theater am Kärntnertor
Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor komisch-phantastische Oper 3 acts Salomon Hermann Mosenthal, after William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor 1845–1846 9 March 1849 Berlin, Hofoper

Other

Songs and duets

Works for piano

References

Notes

  1. ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 662.
  2. ^ Biographical on-line note Archived 13 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
  3. ^ John Cargher. "The Italian job", ABC Radio 24 Hours, November 2001, p. 42

Sources

External links

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