Eduard Künneke

Eduard Künneke (also spelled Künnecke) (27 January 1885 - 27 October 1953) was a German composer of operetta, opera and theatre music. He was born in Emmerich. His daughter was the actress and singer Evelyn Künneke. Künneke studied musicology and literature in Berlin, and was also an advanced student of Max Bruch. He worked as a repetiteur and chorus master at a Berlin operetta theater, the Neues Operettentheater am Schiffbauerdamm, but relinquished his post as chorus master after his opera Robins Ende (1909) was premiered in Mannheim and then received productions at 38 different German opera houses. Künneke later worked under Max Reinhardt and wrote incidental music for Reinhardt’s staging of Part Two of Goethe's Faust. Künneke's graceful music is distinguished by its rhythm and striking harmonies. His best-known work is the 1921 operetta Der Vetter aus Dingsda; many of his songs are still familiar today. In 1926, when his operetta Lady Hamilton was premiered in Breslau (now...