Franz von Suppé

Life & Education

Descended from a Belgian family which emigrated to Dalmatia, probably in the 18th century. A distant relative of Gaetano Donizetti, his real name was Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo Cavaliere Suppé-Demelli. He simplified and Germanized his name when in Vienna.

He spent his childhood in Zadar, where he had his first music lessons and began to compose at an early age. It was in the Franciscan church in Zadar that his Mass was first performed in 1832.

As a teenager in Cremona, Suppé studied flute and harmony. His first extant composition is a Roman Catholic Mass, premiered at a Franciscan church in Zadar. He moved to Padua to study law, the field of study not chosen by him but continued to study music. Later in Vienna, after studying with Ignaz Seyfried and Simon Sechter, he conducted the Josephstadt theater, without pay at first, but with the opportunity to present his own operas there. Eventually, Suppé wrote music for over a hundred productions at Josephstadt as well as at Leopoldstadt, at the Theater an der Wien, and a theater at Baden. He also put on some landmark opera productions, such as the 1846 production of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots with Jenny Lind. Suppé was also a singer, making his debut in the role of Dulcamara in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore at the Ödenburg theater in 1842.

Opus

Two of Suppé's comic operas have been performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Boccaccio and Donna Juanita, but they failed to become repertoire works. He composed about 30 operettas and 180 farces, ballets and other stage works. Though the bulk of Suppé's operas have nearly sunken to oblivion, the overtures, particularly Light Cavalry and Poet & Peasant, have survived and some of them have been used in all sorts of soundtracks for movies, cartoons, advertisements, etc., in addition to being played at "pops" concerts. Suppé's operas are performed in Europe, and Peter Branscombe, writing in the Grove dictionary, characterizes Suppé's song Des ist mein Österreich as "Austria's second national song".

He retained links with his native Dalmatia occasionally visiting Split, Zadar and Šibenik. Some of his works are linked with Dalmatia, in particular his operetta "The Mariner's Return", the action of which takes place in Hvar. After retiring from conducting, Suppé continued to write operas, but shifted his focus to sacred music. He also wrote a Requiem for theater director Franz Pokorny, three Masses, songs, symphonies and concert overtures.

External Links

• Franz von Suppé on stamps

Referenced By