Leopold Friedrich Witt

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Leopold Friedrich Witt (born August 17, 1811 in Königsberg (Prussia) , † December 31, 1890 in Kiel ; often Friedrich Witt ) was a German theater Kapellmeister , opera and theater director and composer .

Life

It is believed that the young Witt received his compositional training from Carl Friedrich Zelter in Berlin . Since 1831 Witt's work as Kapellmeister at European opera stages, a.o. a. in Brno , Graz and Milan . From 1840 Witt met the composers Emil Titl , Carl Binder and Franz von Suppè as opera director at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna .

In 1849 Witt came to the theater in Würzburg , where his namesake (Jeremias) Friedrich Witt (1770–1836) had already worked as theater director. The fact that names are identical therefore harbors the risk of confusing the two composers.

Witt's stage works, mainly antics, magic pieces and life pictures, fell into oblivion after his death. Witt's artistically most fruitful period is his tenure from 1857 to 1872 as theater director of the Kiel City Theater .

As a composer , he wrote mainly salon music and, for contemporary tastes, favorite topics and “souvenirs” from operas as well as German and English art songs (e.g. “Du ziehest fort”, “Lady Awake!”).

Witt was a Freemason and from 1854 to 1857 a member of the Königsberg Lodge Zum Todtenkopf und Phoenix .

Works

Catalogs of works on Leopold Friedrich Witt can be found in the relevant music bibliographies and catalogs, for example in: Franz Pazdrek (Hrsg.): Universal-Handbuch der Musikliteratur aller Zeiten und Völker , Vienna 1904–1910 (over 30 volumes), Hilversum 1967 reprint.

literature

  • MGG: Music in the past and present - General encyclopedia of music founded by Friedrich Blume . Second, rework. Edition, edited by Ludwig Finscher , Person Part 17 (Vin-Z)
  • E. Pomsel: The artist couple Witt in Kiel , in: Communications of the Society for Kiel City History , 1952, Issue 1, 1-8
  • Peter Dannenberg : Always when it gets evening - Three hundred years of theater in Kiel , Christians Verlag 1983 (1985 edition: ISBN 978-3767208360 )
  • GA Neumann, articles in: Rohrblatt 19, 2004, H.3, 124-130; Rohrblatt 20, 2005, H.3, 126-133; Reed 22, 2007, H.3, 158-166.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Hieber : History of the United Johannis Lodge to Todtenkopf and Phoenix zu Königsberg i. Pr. Königsberg 1897, self-published by the author
  2. ↑ see homepage of the magazine 'Rohrblatt'
personal data
SURNAME Witt, Leopold Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Witt, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theater music director, opera and theater director and composer
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1811
PLACE OF BIRTH Königsberg (Prussia)
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1890
Place of death Kiel