Wolf-Ferrari (real name, Wolf), Ermanno

Wolf-Ferrari (real name, Wolf), Ermanno, famous Italian opera composer; b. Venice, Jan. 12, 1876; d. there, Jan. 21, 1948. His father was a well-known painter of German descent and his mother was Italian; about 1895 he added his mother’s maiden name to his surname. He began piano study as a small child but also evinced a talent for art; after studying at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome (1891-92), he went to Munich to continue his training but then turned to music and studied counterpoint with Rheinberger at the Akademie der Tonkunst (1892-95). In 1899 he returned to Venice, where his oratorio La Sulamite was successfully performed. This was followed by the production of his first major opera, Cenerentola (1900), which initially proved a failure; however, its revised version for Bremen (1902) was well received and established his reputation as a composer for the theater. From 1903 to 1909 he was director of the Liceo Benedetto Marcello in Venice; then devoted himself mainly to composition and later was prof, of composition at the Salzburg Mozarteum (1939-45). He obtained his first unqualified success with the production of the comic opera Le donne curiose (Munich, 1903); the next opera, I quattro rusteghi (Munich, 1906), was also well received. There followed his little masterpiece, II segreto di Susanna (Munich, 1909), a one-act opera buffa in the style of the Italian verismo (Susanna’s secret being not infidelity, as her husband suspected, but indulgence in surreptitious smoking). Turning toward grand opera, he wrote I gioielli della Madonna; it was brought out at Berlin in 1911, and soon became a repertoire piece everywhere; he continued to compose, but his later operas failed to match the appeal of his early creations.

Works

dramatic: Opera: Cenerentola (Venice, Feb. 22, 1900; rev. version as Aschenbrödel, Bremen, Jan. 31, 1902); Le Donne curiose (1902-03; in Ger. as Die neugierigen Frauen, Munich, Nov. 27, 1903; in Italian, N.Y., Jan. 3, 1912); I quattro rusteghi (in Ger. as Die vier Grobiane, Munich, March 19, 1906); II segreto di Susanna (in Ger. as Susannens Geheimnis, Munich, Dec. 4, 1909; in Italian, N.Y., March 14, 1911); I gioielli della Madonna (in Ger. as Der Schmuck der Madonna, Berlin, Dec. 23, 1911; in Italian, Chicago, Jan. 16, 1912; in Eng. as The Jewels of the Madonna, N.Y., Oct. 14, 1913); L’amore medico (in Ger. as Der Liebhaber als Arzt, Dresden, Dec. 4, 1913; in Italian, N.Y., March 25,1914); Gli Amanti sposi (e. 1916; Venice, Feb. 19,1925); Das Himmelskleid (c. 1917-25; Munich, April 21, 1927; in Italian as La veste di cielo); Sly, ovvero La leggenda del dormiente risvegliato (Milan, Dec. 29, 1927); La vedova scaltra (Rome, March 5, 1931); II campiello (Milan, Feb. 11, 1936); La dama boba (Milan, Feb. I, 1939); Gli dei a Tebe (in Ger. as Der Kuckuck in Theben, Hannover, June 5,1943); also an ed. of Mozart’s Idomeneo (Munich, June 15, 1931). ORCH.: Serenade for Strings (c. 1893); Kammersymphonie (1901); Idillio-concertino for Oboe, 2 Horns, and Strings (1933); Suite-concertino for Bassoon, 2 Horns, and Strings (Rome, March 26, 1933); Suite veneziano for Small Orch. (1936); Divertimento (1937); Arabeschi (1940); Violin Concerto (1946); Sympho-nia brevis (1947); Cello Concerto (c. 1947). CHAMBER: String Quintet (1894); 3 violin sonatas (1895, 1901, c. 1940); 2 piano trios (c. 1897,1900); Piano Quintet (1900); String Quartet (1940); String Quintet (1942); String Trio (1946); Introduzione e balletto for Violin and Cello (1946); piano pieces. VOCAL: La Sulamite, canto biblico (1889); Talitha kumi, oratorio (1900); La vita nuova, cantata (1901; Munich, Feb. 21, 1903); La passione for Chorus (1939; also for Voice and Piano, 1940); other large and small choral works.

Bibliography

H. Teibler, E. W.-F.(Leipzig, 1906); E. Stahl, ed., E. W.-F.(Salzburg, 1936); R. de Rensis, E. W.-F, La sua vita d’artista (Milan, 1937); A. Grisson, E. W.-F.: autorisierte Lebensbeschreibung (Regensburg, 1941; 2^nd ed., enl., 1958); R. de Rensis and G. Vannini, In memoria di E. W.-F (Siena, 1948); W. Pfannkuch, Das Opernschaffen E. W.-Fs (diss., Univ. of Kiel, 1952); A. Suder, ed., E. W.-F (Tutzing, 1986).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire