Stories from the Operas

by Gladys Davidson

WOLF-FERRARI

Ermanni Wolf-Ferrari was born 12th January, 1876, at Venice. He studied under Rheinberge at Munich from 1893 to 1895; and in 1902 he was appointed Director of the Liceo Benedetto Marcello in Venice, from which position he resigned in 1909, as he desired to live in Germany. He produced his first opera, La Sulamita, at Venice in 1889 before he went to Munich, this work being the result of his own self-teaching. Other operas followed: Cenerentola, produced at Venice in 1902; Le Donne Curiose, in 1903, this latter opera having been recently produced with success in America. His fine cantata, La Vita Nuova, dealing with the subject of Dante and Beatrice, was brought out in 1903. A light opera, The Secret of Susanna, followed this, and was produced in England in 1911; and his dramatic opera, The Jewels of the Madonna, was given in England during the summer of 1912.