Franz von Suppé Franz von Suppé

Franz von Suppé or Francesco Suppé Demelli (18 April 1819 – 21 May 1895) was an Austrian composer of light operas and other theatre music. He came from the Kingdom of Dalmatia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now part of Croatia). A composer and conductor of the Romantic period, he is notable for his four dozen operettas.

Life and education

Franz von Suppé's parents named him Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo Cavaliere di Suppé-Demelli when he was born on 18 April 1819 in Spalato, now Split, Dalmatia, Austrian Empire. His Belgian ancestors may have emigrated there in the 18th century. His father – a man of Italian and Belgian ancestry – was a civil servant in the service of the Austrian Empire, as was his father before him; Suppé's mother was Viennese by birth. He was said to be a distant relative of Gaetano Donizetti. He simplified and Germanized his name when in Vienna, and changed "cavaliere di" to "von". Outside Germanic circles, his name may appear on programmes as Francesco Suppé-Demelli.

He spent his childhood in Zara, now Zadar, where he had his first music lessons and began to compose at an early age. As a boy he had no encouragement in music from his father, but was helped by a local bandmaster and by the Spalato cathedral choirmaster. His Missa dalmatica dates from this early period. As a teenager in Cremona, Suppé studied flute and harmony. His first extant composition is a Roman Catholic mass, which premiered at a Franciscan church in Zara in 1832. At the age of 16, he moved to Padua to study law – a field of study not chosen by him – but continued to study music. Suppé was also a singer, making his debut as a basso profundo in the role of Dulcamara in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore at the Sopron theatre in 1842.

He was invited to Vienna by Franz Pokorny, the director of the Theater in der Josefstadt. In Vienna, after studying with Ignaz von Seyfried and Simon Sechter, he conducted in the theatre, without pay at first, but with the opportunity to present his own operas there. Eventually, Suppé wrote music for over a hundred productions at the Theater in der Josefstadt as well as the Carltheater in Leopoldstadt, at the Theater an der Wien. He also put on some landmark opera productions, such as the 1846 production of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots with Jenny Lind.

Franz von Suppé died in Vienna on 21 May 1895 and is buried in the Zentralfriedhof.

List of works

Some of Suppé's more well-known works are listed here, listed with date of first performance. All are operettas unless indicated:

• Overture Ein Morgen, ein Mittag und ein Abend in Wien (Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna) – 1844
• Dichter und Bauer (Poet and Peasant) – 24 August 1846, Theater an der Wien, Vienna
• Die Irrfahrt um's Glück – 24 April 1853, Theater an der Wien, Vienna
• Das Pensionat – 24 November 1860, Theater an der Wien, Vienna
• Die Kartenschlägerin – 26 April 1862, Kai-Theater Vienna
• Zehn Mädchen und kein Mann – 25 October 1862, Kai-Theater Vienna
• Flotte Burschen – 18 April 1863, Kai-Theater Vienna
• Pique Dame – Opera – 22 June 1864, Graz (revision of Die Kartenschlägerin; based on the same story by Pushkin as was Tchaikovsky's opera The Queen of Spades)
• Die schöne Galathée (The Beautiful Galatea) – 30 June 1865, Meysels-Theater Berlin
• Leichte Kavallerie (Light Cavalry) – 21 March 1866, Carltheater Vienna
• Banditenstreiche (Jolly Robbers) – 27 April 1867, Carltheater Vienna
• Die Frau Meisterin – 20 January 1868, Carltheater Vienna
• Fatinitza – 5 January 1876, Carltheater Vienna (plot)
• Boccaccio – 1 February 1879, Carltheater Vienna
• Donna Juanita – 21 February 1880, Carltheater Vienna
• Der Gascogner – 22 March 1881, Carltheater Vienna
• Des Matrosen Heimkehr - romantic opera 4 May 1885, Stadttheater, Hamburg
• Bellmann – 26 February 1887, Theater an der Wien, Vienna
• Die Jagd nach dem Glück – 27 October 1888, Carltheater Vienna
• March Oh Du mein Österreich
• Overture Tantalusqualen