Franz von Suppé

The composer and conductor Franz von Suppé (April 18, 1819 – May 21, 1895) was born in Split (Dalmatia) and died in Vienna. He is most famous for his operetta overtures, performed mostly at "light classics" concerts.

Works

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, and so on, in addition to being played at "pops" concerts. Suppé's operas are performed in Europe; Peter Branscombe, writing in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, characterizes Suppé's song Des ist mein Österreich as "Austria's second national song".

Related Topics:
Metropolitan Opera - Boccaccio - Overture - Movie - Cartoon - Advertisement - New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians - National song

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He retained links with his native Dalmatia, occasionally visiting Split, Zadar, and ?ibenik. 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 theatre director Franz Pokorny, three Masses, songs, symphonies, and concert overtures.

Related Topics:
Split - ?ibenik - Hvar - Requiem

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