A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Winter, Peter
WINTER, Peter, opera composer, much esteemed in his day, born at Mannheim 1754, died at Munich Oct. 17, 1825. At 10 he played the violin in the Elector Karl Theodore's celebrated band. He had some instruction in composition from the Abbé Vogler, but really formed himself as a composer later in life. In 1776 he became Musik-director of the court theatre, and in this post made acquaintance with Mozart, against whom he took a great dislike, and whom he damaged later in Vienna by spreading false reports about his private life.[1] When the Court removed from Mannheim to Munich Winter followed, and became in 1788 Court-Capellmeister. This post he retained to his death, and was treated with the greatest consideration, receiving on more than one occasion leave of absence for two or three years. He visited Vienna twice, first in 1781, when he produced three ballets, and again during the years between 1793 and 1797, when he had nine operas performed at the Burgtheater and Schikaneder's theatre, including 'Das unterbrochene Opferfest' (Burgtheater, June 14, 1796), and a cantata 'Timotheus, or the power of music' (1797), by the Tonkünstler Societät. The intercourse he maintained with Salieri was important as inducing him to pay more attention to the vocal part of his compositions. This is perceptible in all the works written in Vienna. He also visited Italy (Naples and Venice, 1791 and 1793), Prague (1796), Paris (1802 and 1806), London (1803–5), and Italy again (Milan and Genoa, 1817–19). Besides a number of operas, of which the greatest and most lasting favourites were 'Maria von Montalban' (Munich 1798) and the 'Unterbrochene Opferfest,' popular on account of its catching melodies, Winter composed a quantity of church music, cantatas, Lieder, part-songs, and instrumental works (symphonies, overtures, and concerted pieces for various instruments), most of which were printed, but have long since disappeared. His singing Method (Schott, Mayence, with German, French, and Italian words) is however still of value.
We append a list of his operas, classified according to the places where they were first produced:—Munich: 'Armida' (1778), 'Cora ed Alonzo' and 'Leonardo e Blandine' (1779), 'Helène and Paris' (German, 1780), 'Der Bettelstudent' (German operetta, 1781), 'Bellerophon' (German, 1782), 'Scherz, List, und Rache' (operetta, 1784), 'Circe' (1788), 'Jery und Bätely' (German, 1790), 'Psyche' and 'Der Sturm' (Shakespeare's 'Tempest,' (1793), 'Marie von Montalban' (German, 1798), 'Der Frauenbund' (German, 1805), 'Colmal' (1809), 'Die Blinden' (German, 1810). Naples: 'Antigone' (1791). Venice: 'Catone in Utica' (1791), 'I Fratelli rivali' and 'Il Sacrificio di Creta' (1792). Vienna: 'Armida und Rinaldo' (German melodrama with chorus and dances, 1793), 'I due Vedovi' and 'Das unterbrochene Opferfest' (German, 1796), 'Babylons Pyramiden' (German, with Mederitsch, nicknamed Gallus, 1797), and 'Das Labyrinth' (sequel to the 'Zauberflöte,' German, 1798).[2] Prague: 'Ogus, il Trionfo del bel sesso' (1796). Paris: 'Tamerlan' (1802), 'Castor e Pollux' (1806). London: 'Calypso' (1803), 'Proserpina' (1804), 'Zaira' (1805). Milan: 'I due Valdomiri' and 'Maometto' (1817), 'Etelinda' (1818), 'Sänger und Schneider' written in Geneva, but first produced in Munich (1820), his last work for the stage.
Of his church works there are now in the Royal Chapel at Munich 26 Masses, 2 Requiems, 3 Stabat Maters, and a quantity of graduales, offertoires, vespers, etc. For the Protestant court chapel he wrote 7 cantatas, 2 oratorios, a German Stabat Mater, and smaller anthems.
Winter's strong points were just declamation, agreeable melody, brilliant choral writing, and rich instrumentation, which he never suffered to overpower the voices. His weakness was in counterpoint, which he had never found an opportunity of mastering thoroughly. As a whole his church music is preferable to his operas; which, though vocal and melodious, have neither originality, greatness, dramatic force, fire, nor genius. His airs are specially weak, never seeming fully developed. Winter could amuse and entertain, but to seize the imagination, to touch, to agitate, was beyond him. This is why even his best and most popular works disappeared from the stage soon after his death.