Lassen, Eduard

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Lassen, Eduard

Lassen, Eduard, Danish conductor and composer; b. Copenhagen, April 13, 1830; d. Weimar, Jan. 15, 1904. His family moved to Brussels when he was a child. He entered the Brussels Cons., taking the Belgian Prix de Rome (1851). Following a tour through Germany and Italy, he went to Weimar, where Liszt fostered the presentation of his 5-act opera Landgraf Ludwigs Brautfahrt (1857). He was court music director in Weimar (1858–95), where he led the world premiere of Saint-Saëns’s opera Samson et Dalila (Weimar, Dec. 2, 1877). He also wrote the operas Frauenlob (Weimar, 1860) and Der Gefangene (given in Brussels as Le Captif, April 24, 1865), the ballet, Diana, 2 syms., Fest- Cantate, two overtures, Te Deum, a set of Biblische Bilder for Chorus and Orch., songs, and incidental music.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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