| Contents |
The early years: 1854-93 -- Family origins and childhood, 1854-72 -- Conservatoire: Cologne and Munich, 1872-80 -- Wagner, 1880-83 -- Nomad, 1883-87 -- Jack of all trades, 1887-93 -- Renown: 1893-1907 -- The masterpiece: Hansel and Gretel, 1893-94 -- In search of the perfect libretto, 1894-97 -- Rhenish interlude, 1897-1900 -- Berlin: the whirlpool, 1900-7 -- Professor, 1900-7 -- The last years: 1907-21 -- Triumph and setback, 1907-12 -- Physical decline, 1912-19 -- Farewell, 1919-21. |
| Abstract |
Engelbert Humperdinck's opera Hansel und Gretel is one of the best-known in the repertoire, its melodies as familiar as folk-tunes - and yet no full-length biography of Humperdinck (1854-1921) has ever been published in English: although highly regarded a century ago, he has since been overshadowed by the continued success of his own fairy-tale creation. His other works remain essentially unknown, but they include five additional operas, ten further stage works (including music for four Shakespeare plays), pieces for orchestra and for chorus, and many songs. This book sets a pioneering examination of Humperdinck's entire output in a biographical framework, with detailed, illustrated descriptions accompanied by quotations from Humperdinck's contemporaries. Humperdinck was a quintessential composer of the Germany of the Kaisers: his maturation coincided with the establishment of the German Empire, and his training with teachers who remembered Beethoven and Schubert culminated in an apprenticeship with Richard Wagner. His talents won him entry to the Bayreuth inner circle and to the home of Johannes Brahms, and earned him a reception with Kaiser Wilhelm II and an evening in Theodore Roosevelt's White House. His friends included Richard Strauss, Hugo Wolf, Gustav Mahler, Giacomo Puccini and Isadora Duncan. Kurt Weill, Leo Blech, and Hans Pfitzner were among his hundreds of students. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN | 9780907689928 hardcover |
| ISBN | 0907689922 hardcover |
