Franz Xaver Hauser (12 January 1794, Krasovice – 14 August 1870 in

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population o ...

) was a singer, voice teacher, and music manuscript collector.

Life

Franz Hauser was born in Krasowitz (today Krasovice, part of Kondrac Czech Republic). At his father's insistence, he first studied medicine, but he then studied singing with

Václav Tomášek Václav Jan Křtitel Tomášek (in German: Wenzel Johann Tomaschek; 17 April 1774, Skuteč, Bohemia – 3 April 1850, Prague) was an Austrian-Bohemian, by other accounts a Czech composer and music teacher. He was known as the Musical Pope of Pr ...

and composition with oboist Josef Triebensee. He made his stage debut in 1817 in Prague as Sarastro in Mozart's '' Magic Flute''. He found great success at the opera theaters in Vienna, Leipzig, and Berlin. He retired from the stage in 1838 and taught singing in Vienna. In 1846 he was appointed as director of the newly established conservatory in Munich (now the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München), serving as its director until 1864. He retired in 1865 to Karlsruhe and two years later to Freiburg im Breisgau. Contemporary critics considered Hauser cold as an actor but approved of his pure voice. He was known for his interpretation of

Weber Weber (, or ; German: ) is a surname of German origin, derived from the noun meaning " weaver". In some cases, following migration to English-speaking countries, it has been anglicised to the English surname 'Webber' or even 'Weaver'. Notable pe ...

and as Figaro (both

Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

's and Mozart's), Bertram, William Tell, and Spohr's Faust. Hauser had many students including

Jenny Lind Johanna Maria "Jenny" Lind (6 October 18202 November 1887) was a Swedish opera singer, often called the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she performed in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and a ...

and Henriette Sontag. He wrote a popular singing manual, ''Gesanglehre für Lehrer und Lernende'' (Leipzig, 1866) (freely available throug
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. As a composer, he was known for his songs. His correspondence with composer Moritz Hauptmann was published in two volumes in 1871. Hauser's greatest significance today is as a collector of musical manuscripts –most notably of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach- assembling the greatest 19th century collection of that composer's manuscripts. He was a consultant for the Bach-Gesellschaft edition and prepared a thematic catalogue of Bach's works. Most of Hauser's autograph manuscripts by Bach (including 19 cantatas, the accompanied sonatas for violin, and the English suites for keyboard) were acquired by the Berlin Royal Library in 1904. Others were destroyed in 1945. Parts of his collection are also in the Darmstadt Landesbibliothek and the Harvard University Loeb Music Library. His son, Moritz Hauser (1827–1857), became a theater director in Königsberg and a minor composer.

References

* Yoshitake Kobayashi: ''Franz Hauser und seine Bach-Handschriftensammlung''. Göttingen, University, Diss., 1975 * Dale A. Jorgenson: ''The life and legacy of Franz Xaver Hauser: a forgotten leader in the nineteenth century Bach movement''. Carbondale, Ill., Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1996. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hauser, Franz 1794 births 1870 deaths People from Benešov District 19th-century German male opera singers German male classical composers