Heinrich Sutermeister

Heinrich Sutermeister (born Feuerthalen, 12 August, 1910 – died Vaux-sur-Morges, 16 March, 1995) was a Swiss opera composer.

During the early 1930s he was a student at the Akademie der Tonkunst in Munich where Carl Orff was his teacher and Orff remained a powerful influence on his music. Returning to Switzerland in the mid 1930s, he devoted his life to composition. His most successful work was "Romeo und Julia", premiered in Dresden in 1940 under Karl Böhm. He subsequently wrote operas for the radio, including "Die schwarze Spinne", and television.

Works

* "Max und Moritz", ballet after Wilhelm Busch
* "Die schwarze Spinne", 'Funkoper' after Jeremias Gotthelf, 1936
*"Romeo und Julia", opera after William Shakespeare, 1940
*"Die Zauberinsel", opera after Shakespeare, 1942
*"1. Piano Concerto", 1943
*"Niobe", 'Monodram', 1946
*"Capriccio for unaccompanied Clarinet in A",1946
*"Raskolnikoff", opera after Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1948
*"Die Alpen", fantasy on Swiss folksongs, 1948
*"Der rote Stiefel", opera, 1951
*"2. Piano Concerto", 1953
*"Missa da Requiem", 1953
*"1. Cello Concerto", 1954-55
*"Titus Feuerfuchs oder Die Liebe, Tücke und Perücke", opera, 1958
*"3. Piano Concerto", 1961-62
*"Das Gespenst von Canterville", play with music for television after Oscar Wilde, 1962-63
*"Poème funèbre - En mémoire de Paul Hindemith" for string orchestra, 1965
*"Omnia ad Unum", cantata, 1965-66
*"Madame Bovary", opera after Gustave Flaubert, 1967
*"2. Cello Concerto", 1971
*"Te Deum", 1975
*"Clarinet Concerto", 1975-76
*"Consolatio philosophiae", 'Scène dramatique', 1979
*"Le roi Bérenger", opera after Eugène Ionesco, 1985

References

*Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), "The Oxford Dictionary of Opera", 782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5