Wagner-Régeny, Rudolf

Rudolf Wagner-Régeny – Der Günstling oder Die letzten Tage des Grossen Herrn Fabiano

(b. Sächsisch Regen, August 28, 1903 – d. East Berlin, September 18, 1969)

(The Favorite or The Last Days of the Great Lord Fabiano)

Opera in three acts

Preface
Rudolf Wagner-Régeny, born in 1903 in Sächsisch-Regen in Transylvania, now Romania, distinguished himself to be a highly gifted child in music from an early age. After the First World War, he studied piano and composition in Germany and, from 1924 onward, took his first positions in Berlin, first as a répétiteur and later as choir director at the Volksoper. During the Nazi dictatorship, he composed three of his most important operas: Der Günstling, Die Bürger von Calais, and Johanna Balk. After World War II, Wagner-Régeny remained in the GDR and became an important figure in the socialist cultural scene. From 1947, he headed the newly founded Rostock University of Music, and from 1950 to 1968, Wagner-Régeny worked as a professor of composition at the East Berlin University of Music. He composed impressive musical dramas such as the opera Das Bergwerk zu Falun, cantatas such as Genesis, and the scenic work Prometheus. He was a member of the German Academy of Arts in Berlin and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, and in 1955 his work was honored with the National Prize of the GDR. He died in 1969, two years after his retirement

Wagner-Régeny composed in almost every musical genre. His oeuvre includes numerous orchestral works, songs, chamber music, and piano music. In particular, alongside his colleagues Hindemith, Orff, Egk, and Blacher, his stage works significantly shaped the development of modern European music theatre. …

read more / weiterlesen … > HERE