Komjáti, Károly

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Komjáti, Károly

Komjáti, Károly, Hungarian composer; Budapest, May 8, 1896; d. there, July 3, 1953. He received training at the Budapest Academy of Music. He then devoted himself to composing light theater works mainly for Budapest. After winning enormous success with his second operetta, Villango föhadnagy (Lieutenant Butterfly; June 7, 1918), he went on to write such successful works as A harapósférj (The Snappy Husband; March 22, 1931; rev. version, May 25, 1949), Fizessen nagysad (Jan. 23, 1932), and Éjfeli tango (Feb. 27, 1932). After his Ein Liebestraum was premiered in Vienna (Oct. 27, 1933), he resumed composing for the Budapest stage with such scores as A szegény b’rdb’g (The Poor Devil; Sept. 29, 1934), Bécsi tavasz (Nov. 15, 1935), Antoinette (Dec. 23, 1937), and Csicsónénak hârom lanya (Oct. 5, 1946).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire