A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Nessler, Victor

NESSLER, Victor, born Jan. 28, 1841, at Baldenheim in Alsace, at first studied theology at Strasburg, but the success of his essay at operatic composition, a work entitled 'Fleurette,' and produced there in 1864, induced him to devote himself to music. He then went to Leipzig, and obtained various posts as conductor of male choral societies, for the use of which he wrote a set of part-songs, etc. In 1870 he became choral director at the Stadt Theater, and in 1879 conductor at the Carolatheater in the same town. Meanwhile various operas had been brought out with varying success. The list is as follows:—'Die Hochzeitsreise' (1867); 'Dornröschen's Brautfahrt' (1868); 'Nachtwachter und Student' (1868); 'Am Alexandertag' (1869); 'Irmingard,' a more ambitious work than the previous productions, in five acts (1876); 'Der Rattenfänger von Hameln' (1879), an opera which rapidly spread his fame throughout Germany, and which has attained an enormous success; 'Die wilde Jäger' (1881); 'Der Trompeter von Säkkingen' (1884); and 'Otto der Schütz' (1886). The success of the 'Trompeter' was almost as great as that of the 'Rattenfänger.' Both owe their popularity to an easy superficiality of style, which commends itself to the less musical portion of the German public. When the 'Rattenfänger,' under the name of 'The Piper of Hamelin,' was produced at Covent Garden Theatre by the English Opera Company on Jan. 7, 1884, it achieved a well-merited failure. (Died May 27, 1890.)

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