Heinrich Weidt

Heinrich Weidt (* 1824 in Coburg ; † September 14, 1901 in Graz ) was a German composer, conductor and choir director.

The biographical information about the widely traveled musician is still incomplete. After a short teaching activity in Wertheim, he lived as an actor in Hamburg from 1846 to 1854. It was here that he wrote his first song compositions, which were published by the publishers Fritz Schuberth and GW Niemeyer . During this time he also composed the first of his ten works for the stage, the operetta Madelaine, the Rose of Brittany . He then worked as Kapellmeister in Heidelberg, Düsseldorf, Zurich and Basel before he went to Kassel, where he was first court conductor, from 1861 head of his own choir, the Weidt'schen Gesangsverein .

In 1863 Weidt went to Pest as conductor of the municipal theater. In addition to operas and operettas by contemporary composers, he performed his melodrama Hagar in the Desert in eight living pictures and the singspiel List gegen List . Furthermore, his opera Was ist Liebe (1863) and the operetta Die Outrage im Harem (1865) premiered in Pest . On the occasion of a visit by Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1865, he conducted the fraternization jubilation overture by Franz von Suppè . His Mazurka Les oiseaux les forèts was published by the publisher Rózsavölgyi . .

After a season 1866-1867 at the Theater Olomouc Weidt was to 1872 musical director of the Opera in Timisoara . In addition, he founded an amateur orchestra in 1871 and, alongside Wilhelm Franz Speer, was second conductor of the Philharmonic Association. The operettas Duke of Entraques (1869) and Engagement in the Wine Cellar (1871) and the opera Adelma were written in Timisoara . A festival overture that was performed at the opening of the theater season 1871–1872 had great success.

Weidt worked as Kapellmeister in Troppau from 1873 until his retirement in 1887 . The world premiere of his opera Adelma took place here in 1974 . From 1887 he was artistic director of the music club and director of the music school, and a year later he was also director of the music band in Cilli . In 1888 he performed Beethoven's First Symphony here , the German Dances by Franz Schubert in an orchestration by Johann Herbeck and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's overture Ruy-Blas . In the same year he composed the march Die Bergkraxler by Cilli for piano here.

In 1893 Weidt became the choirmaster of the Kubin men's choir , with whom he performed the operetta parody Der Trompeter von Säkkingen on New Year's Eve . In the following year he already took over the position of music director and choir leader of the Werschetz men's choir . In 1895 he founded a private institute for piano and singing in Werschetz. Weidt left Timisoara around 1899 and went to Graz, where he died two years later.

In addition to ten works for the stage, Weidt composed numerous songs, some of which became very popular, choral and piano works as well as numerous occasional works that have largely been lost. He was a member of the Altona Masonic Lodge Carl zum Felsen .

source

• Edition Musik Südost - Heinrich Weidt