Engelbert Humperdinck*, the composer of the popular opera Hansel and Gretel was born on the first of September 1854 in the Rhineland town of Siegburg, near Bonn, Germany, the oldest of the four children of a school master. He started piano lessons at age seven and began to compose music-plays (Singspiels) when he was fourteen.

Although he studied architecture in college, a composer friend recognized his musical ability and encouraged him to study piano, composition and the cello. As a student at the Cologne Conservatory he attended concerts and operas; one of these was conducted by the great composer Richard Wagner and Humperdinck's life was changed forever. He won scholarships which financed further studies and a number of prizes which enabled him to study in Italy. In Naples, at the age of twenty-five, he met Wagner in person. This led to an invitation to Bayreuth, Germany where he helped the famous composer prepare his opera Parsifal for its premiere. (This included the composition of a few fill-in passages in the opera.) His task of copying the full score taught him the details of orchestration and rehearsed the boys' choruses made up of local school children. He also wrote the concert ending for Siegfried's Rhine Journey from Wagner's opera Götterdammerung.

Humperdinck was always grateful for his experience with Wagner and later named his daughter Senta, after the heroine of Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman. Wagner memorabilia filled his home, and Wagner's son Siegfried was one of his students. (Another student was Kurt Weil.) When Wagner died in 1883, Humperdinck took a three month trip to Spain where he became seriously ill. As a result, one ear heard sounds one-half tone higher than the other, a serious problem for a musician. He moved back to Cologne, Germany, where he was assistant conductor at the Opera. He was dismissed for an unusual reason — for "excessive conscientiousness and time-wasting thoroughness". Instead, he became the private musician to the wealthy Krupp armament family and finally, in 1888, joined a music publishing firm and also served as a college professor and music critic.

In 1889 Humperdinck's sister Adelheid asked him to compose music for a few songs she had written for her children to perform. This small beginning eventually led to the full-scale opera Hansel and Gretel. During a 1911 visit to London he again became ill but, in spite of his bad health, he taught in Berlin until 1920, i.e. throughout World War I. He died on September 27, 1921.

The royalties from Hansel and Gretel enabled Humperdinck to retire and spend most of his time composing. While Humperdinck is primarily known today for this one opera, he also wrote others including the Königskinder (The Kings Children), Dornröschen (Sleeping Beauty) and Aschenbrödel (Cinderella). Plays for which he wrote incidental music are Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, A Winter's Tale, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It and The Tempest as well a Aristophanes' Lysistrata, and Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird. He also wrote choral music and nearly sixty songs. He is often accused of imitating Wagner but, while his music certainly reflects the influence of his mentor it is still uniquely his own.

*Note: The modern pop singer adopted Engelbert Humperdinck as his professional name, but there is no connection. His real name is Arnold George Dorsey.

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Revised September 2009
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