Johann Sigismund Kusser

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Johann Sigismund Kusser , also Cousser (baptized February 13, 1660 in Preßburg (now Bratislava), † November 1727 in Dublin ) was a conductor and composer of Hungarian descent who worked in Germany, England and Ireland.

Life

The son of the Protestant cantor in Pressburg, Johann Kusser , moved to Stuttgart with his parents in 1674 . Two years later he went to Paris and Versailles for six years . Kusser was lucky " to be loved by the world-famous French court composer Jean-Baptiste Lully and to learn the French way of composing from him" . Kusser worked at the courts in Baden-Baden and Ansbach before starting a trip to Germany in October 1683.

Hofkapellmeister in Braunschweig and move to Hamburg

In 1690 he became the first conductor of the new Brunswick Opera . The following year he married Hedwig Melusine von Damm, the daughter of a Brunswick councilor. Their daughter Auguste Elisabeth became the wife of the Brunswick chronicler Philipp Julius Rehtmeyer . During his time in Braunschweig, Kusser created eight operas that enriched the Italian-influenced repertoire. As early as 1694, disagreements with the librettist and court poet Friedrich Christian Bressand led him to move to the Hamburg Opera on Gänsemarkt , where some of his operas were performed. Here, too, he fell out with the opera director and composer Jakob Kremberg (who had brought him to Hamburg) and competed with the Gänsemarktoper a. a. the opera Porus in the Remter des Mariendome .

From Hamburg to Stuttgart

Kusser left Hamburg at the end of 1695. After activities in Nuremberg and Augsburg , among others, in 1699 he found employment with Eberhard Ludwig (Württemberg) at the Stuttgart court, where he became court conductor in 1700.

London and Dublin

Kusser moved to London at the end of 1704, where he worked as a composer and private teacher. He went to Dublin in 1707 and was there in 1711 "Chappel Master of Trinity College ". He was appointed "Chief Composer" and "Master of the Music, attending His Majesties State in Ireland" in 1716. Kusser died in Dublin in 1727.

Kusser influenced the next generation of composers, such as Reinhard Keizer , Johann Mattheson , Georg Philipp Telemann , Christoph Graupner , Georg Caspar Schürmann and Georg Friedrich Händel . His works are rarely performed today.

Works (selection)

  • Composition de Musique (1682), a collection of overtures.
  • Three suite collections : Apollon Enjoüé , Festin des Muses and La cicala della cetra d'eunomio (1700)

Stage works

  • Cleopatra (libretto presumably by Friedrich Christian Bressand based on Giacomo Francesco Bussani, Giulio Cesare in Egitto), opera prelude and 3 acts (first performance February 4, 1690 Braunschweig)
  • Julia (ders.?), Opera 3 acts (1690 Braunschweig)
  • La Grotta di Salzdahl (Flaminio Parisetti), Divertimento 1 act (spring 1691 Braunschweig)
  • Narcissus (Gottlieb Fiedler), opera prologue and 3 acts (4th Oct. 1692 Braunschweig; Kusser is named Ober-Capellmeister on the libretto [Hamburg 1692] )
  • Andromeda , Singspiel 3 acts (1692 Braunschweig)
  • Ariadne (Bressand), Opera 5 acts (Dec. 15, 1692 Braunschweig)
  • Jason (ders.), Singspiel 5 acts (September 1, 1692 Braunschweig)
  • Porus (ders., After Jean Racine ), Singspiel 5 acts (1693 Braunschweig); reworked by Christian Heinrich Postel and listed in 1694 under Kusser's direction as The Porus defeated by bravery and courage in Hamburg
  • Erindo or The Invincible Love (Bressand), Schäferspiel 3 acts (1694 Hamburg)
  • The magnanimous Scipio Africanus (Fiedler, after Nicolò Minato ), Opera 3 acts (1694 Hamburg)
  • Pyramus and Thisbe loyal and firmly connected love (C. Schröder), opera with prologue (possibly not performed)
  • The forest in love , Singspiel 1 act (Stuttgart)
  • Gensericus, as Rome and Carthage overcomers (Postel), Opera (1694 Hamburg); doubtful, also attributed to Johann Georg Conradi
  • Adonis (libretto by Bressand after Flaminio Parisetti, Gl'inganni di Cupido ), Opera 3 acts (between 1698 and 1702), rediscovered in the Württemberg State Library in 2005 .
  • The Man of Mode ( George Etherege ) (Feb. 9, 1705 London, Little Lincoln's Inn Fields)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ George J. Buelow:  Kusser, Johann Sigismund. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  2. ↑ Werner Braun: Vom Remter zum Gänsemarkt: from the early history of the old Hamburg Opera, 1677-1697. Saarbrücker Druckerei und Verlag, Saarbrücken 1987, p. 129ff.
  3. ^ Library record of Adonis' 2009 score in Stanford University Libraries, accessed August 31, 2014.
  4. ↑ Product information of the 2009 score published by Adonis on Amazon.com , accessed on August 31, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Kusser, Johann Sigismund
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cousser, Johann Sigismund
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Kapellmeister and composer
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1660
PLACE OF BIRTH Bratislava
DATE OF DEATH November 1727
Place of death Dublin