Carl Otto Ehrenfried Nicolai (9 June 1810 – 11 May 1849) was a German composer, conductor, and one of the founders of the

Vienna Philharmonic The Vienna Philharmonic (VPO; german: Wiener Philharmoniker, links=no) is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and is considered to be one of the finest in the world. The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. It ...

. Nicolai is best known for his operatic version of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's comedy ''

The Merry Wives of Windsor ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' or ''Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play's title is a ref ...

'' as '. In addition to five operas, Nicolai composed

lied In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French s ...

er, works for orchestra,

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in which all verse ...

, ensemble, and solo instruments.

Biography

Nicolai, a child prodigy, was born in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was ...

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

. He received his first musical education from his father, Carl Ernst Daniel Nicolai, who was also a composer and musical director. During his childhood his parents divorced, and while still a youth, early in June 1826, Nicolai ran away from his parents' "loveless" home, taking refuge in

Stargard Stargard (; 1945: ''Starogród'', 1950–2016: ''Stargard Szczeciński''; formerly German language, German: ''Stargard in Pommern'', or ''Stargard an der Ihna''; csb, Stôrgard) is a city in northwestern Poland, located in the West Pomeranian V ...

with a senior legal official called August Adler who treated the musical prodigy like a son and, when Nikolai was seventeen, sent him to Berlin to study with

Carl Friedrich Zelter Carl Friedrich Zelter (11 December 1758 15 May 1832)Grove/Fuller-Datei:Carl-Friedrich-Zelter.jpegMaitland, 1910. The Zelter entry takes up parts of pages 593-595 of Volume V. was a German composer, conductor and teacher of music. Working in his ...

. After initial successes in Germany, including his first symphony (1831) and public concerts, he became musician to the Prussian embassy in Rome. When Verdi declined the libretto of ''Il proscritto'' by the proprietors of La Scala in Milan, it was offered instead to Nicolai. Later, Nicolai refused a libretto by the same author, and it went to Verdi, whose ''

Nabucco ''Nabucco'' (, short for Nabucodonosor ; en, "Nebuchadnezzar") is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera. The libretto is based on the biblical books of 2 Kings, J ...

'' was his first early success. All of Nicolai's operas were originally written in Italian, the sole exception being his last and best known opera, ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'', written in German. At one time he was even more popular in Italy than Verdi. John Cargher. "The Italian job", '' ABC Radio 24 Hours'', November 2001, pg. 42 During the early 1840s, Nicolai established himself as a major figure in the concert life of Vienna. In 1844 he was offered the position, vacated by

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sym ...

, of

Kapellmeister (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...

at the

Berlin Cathedral The Berlin Cathedral (german: link=yes, Berliner Dom), also known as the Evangelical Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church, is a monumental German Evangelical church and dynastic tomb ( House of Hohenzollern) on the Museum Island in centra ...

; but he did not reestablish himself in Berlin until the last year of his life. On 11 May 1849, two months after the premiere of ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'', and only two days after his appointment as ''Hofkapellmeister'' at the

Berlin Staatsoper The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great fro ...

, he collapsed and died from a stroke. On the same day of his death, he was elected a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Arts. Nicolai was portrayed by Hans Nielsen in the 1940 film ''

Falstaff in Vienna ''Falstaff in Vienna'' (german: Falstaff in Wien) is a 1940 German musical comedy film directed by Leopold Hainisch and starring Hans Nielsen, Gusti Wolf and Paul Hörbiger.Fawkes p. 110 It portrays the life of the nineteenth century composer Ot ...

''.

Works

Operas

Other

* Six four-part unaccompanied

er, Op. 6 * Variazioni concertanti su motivi favoriti dell'opera ''

La sonnambula ''La sonnambula'' (''The Sleepwalker'') is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the ''bel canto'' tradition by Vincenzo Bellini set to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ''ballet-pantomime'' written by Eu ...

'' di Bellini, Op. 26, for

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880& ...

, horn and piano (or cello or

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitch ...

) (republished in 2000 by edition mf) * Ecclesiastical Festival Overture on the

chorale Chorale is the name of several related musical forms originating in the music genre of the Lutheran chorale: * Hymn tune of a Lutheran hymn (e.g. the melody of "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"), or a tune in a similar format (e.g. one of the th ...

"Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott", Op. 31 * ''Pater noster'', Op. 33, for two mixed choirs (

SATB SATB is an initialism that describes the scoring of compositions for choirs, and also choirs (or consorts) of instruments. The initials are for the voice types: S for soprano, A for alto, T for tenor and B for bass. Choral music Four-part harm ...

/SATB) a cappella with soloists (SATB/SATB). Published by

Schott Music Schott Music () is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe, and is the second oldest music publisher after Breitkopf & Härtel. The company headquarters of Schott Music were fo ...

in 1999. * Der dritte

Psalm The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived f ...

(Psalm 3) for

alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian ( Latin: ''altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In 4-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruse ...

solo. (Manuscript at

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

.) * Six sonatas for two horns: from the Handel Knot-Farquharson Cousins ms (re(?)published by Edition Kunzelmann in 1977.) *

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...

D major D major (or the key of D) is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor. The D major scale is: : Ch ...

(1832/1845). (Recorded on the label Koch Schwann in 1981, subsequently reissued on compact disc. Published by Augsburg : A. Böhm in 1986.) * Te Deum (1832); Psalm 97, "Der Herr ist König"; Psalm 31, "Herr, auf Dich traue ich"; "Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe" (psalm and liturgical settings recorded also on Koch Schwann. Te Deum was also recorded on Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft LPM 39,170 in 1966.) Psalms 31 & 97 published by Bote & Bock of Berlin in 1977. * Two symphonies: No. 0 (1831) and No. 1 in D (1835, rev. 1845) * Concertino for Trumpet and Orchestra in Eb major (1835)

Songs and duets

*''Wenn sanft des Abends'', Op. 2a *''Der Schäfer im Mai'' / ''Männersinn'', Op. 3 *''Abschied'', Op. 13 *''Auf ewig dein'', Op. 14 *''Wie der Tag mir schleicht'' / ''Willkommen du Gottes Sonne'' / ''Die Schwalbe'', Op. 15 *''Lebewohl'' / ''An die Entfernte'' / ''Randino'' / ''Das treue Mädchen'', Op. 16 *''Schlafendes Herzenssöhnchen'', Op. 19 *''Rastlose Liebe'', Op. 23 *''Il duolo d'amore'' / ''Se tranquillo a te d'accanto'' / ''Il desiderio al lido'' op. 24 *''Die Träne'', Op. 30 *''Die Beruhigung'' / ''Der getreue Bub'' / ''Stürm, stürm, du Winterwind'', Op. 34 *''Der Kuckuck'' / ''Flohjammer'' / ''Du bist zu klein, mein Hänselein'', Op. 35 *''Herbstlied'', Op. 37

Works for piano

*Six danses brillantes *Rondo capriccioso *Sonata in d minor Op. 27 *''Mondwalzer'' *Etude ''Adieu à Liszt'', Op. 28 *3 Etudes, Op. 40

References

Notes Sources * * * *

External links

* *
Otto Nicolai biography and timeline
at MusicWeb Classpedia * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicolai, Otto 1810 births 1849 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century conductors (music) 19th-century German composers German conductors (music) German male classical composers German male conductors (music) German opera composers German Romantic composers Male opera composers Music directors of the Berlin State Opera Musicians from Königsberg People from East Prussia Pupils of Bernhard Klein Pupils of Carl Friedrich Zelter