Millöcker, Carl
Millöcker, Carl
Millöcker, Carl, Austrian conductor and composer; b. Vienna, April 29, 1842; d. Baden, near Vienna, Dec. 31, 1899. His father was a jeweler, and Millöcker was destined for that trade, but showed irrepressible musical inclinations and learned music as a child. He played the flute in a theater orch. at 16, and later took courses at the Cons, of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. Upon the recommendation of Franz von Suppé, he received a post as theater conductor in Graz (1864). In 1866 he returned to Vienna, and from 1869 to 1883 was 2nd conductor of the Theater an der Wien. He suffered a stroke in 1894, which left him partially paralyzed. As a composer, Millöcker possessed a natural gift for melodious music; although his popularity was never as great as that of Johann Strauss or Lehár, his operettas captured the spirit of Viennese life.
Works
dramatic: operetta (all 1st perf. in Vienna unless otherwise given):Der tote Gast (Graz, Dec. 21, 1865); Die lustigen Binder (Graz, Dec. 21, 1865); Diana (Jan. 2, 1867); Die Fraueninsel (Budapest, 1868); Drei Paar Schuhe Qan. 5, 1871); Wechselbrief und Briefwechsel, or Ein nagender Wurm (Aug. 10, 1872); Ein Abenteuer in Wien (Jan. 20, 1873); Das verwunschene Schloss (March 30, 1878); Gräfin Dubarry (Oct. 31, 1879); Apajune der Wassermann (Dec. 18, 1880); Die Jungfrau von Belleville (Oct. 29, 1881); Der Bettelstudent (Dec. 6, 1882; his most successful work; popular also in England and America as Student Beggar, N.Y., Oct. 29, 1883); Gasparone (Jan. 26, 1884); Der Feldprediger (Oct. 31, 1884); Der Vice-Admiral (Oct. 9, 1886); Die sieben Schwaben (Oct. 29, 1887); Der arme Jonathan (Jan. 4, 1890; new version by Hentschke and Rixner, 1939); Das Sonntagskind (Jan. 16, 1892); Der Probekuss (Dec. 22, 1894); Nordlicht, oder Der rote Graf (Dec. 22, 1896).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis Mclntire