Paul Dessau | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 19 December 1894 |
| Died | 28 June 1979 (aged 84) |
| Nationality | German |
| Education | Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory |
| Occupations |
|
| Spouse | Ruth Berghaus |
| Children | Maxim Dessau |
Paul Dessau (19 December 1894 – 28 June 1979) was a German composer and conductor. He collaborated with Bertolt Brecht and composed incidental music for his plays, and several operas based on them.
Dessau was born in Hamburg into a musical family.[1] His grandfather, Moses Berend Dessau (1821–1881), was a cantor in the Hamburg synagogue.[2][1] His uncle, Bernhard Dessau, was Konzertmeister at the Staatskapelle Berlin;[3] his cousin, Max Winterfeld, became known under the name Jean Gilbert as a composer of operettas;[2] and his second cousin, Robert Gerson Müller-Hartmann, was a composer and collaborator with Ralph Vaughan Williams.[4]
From 1909, Dessau studied with Florian Zajic at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin, majoring in violin.[1] In 1912 he became répétiteur at the Stadttheater Hamburg, the municipal theatre.[5] He studied the work of the conductors Felix Weingartner and Arthur Nikisch and took classes in composition from Max Julius Loewengard. He was second Kapellmeister at the Tivoli Theatre in Bremen in 1914 before being drafted for military service in 1915 .[2]
After World War I he became conductor at the Kammerspiele Hamburg, and was répétiteur and later Kapellmeister at the Cologne Opera under Otto Klemperer between 1919 and 1923. In 1923 he became Kapellmeister at the Staatstheater Mainz and from 1925 Principal Kapellmeister at the Städtische Oper Berlin under Bruno Walter.[1][2]
In 1933 Dessau emigrated to France, and 1939 moved further to the United States,[1] where initially he lived in New York City before moving to Hollywood in 1943.[2] Dessau returned to Germany with his second wife, the writer Elisabeth Hauptmann, and settled in East Berlin in 1948.[5]
Starting in 1952, he taught at the Staatliche Schauspielschule (State drama school) in Berlin-Oberschöneweide where he was appointed professor in 1959. He became a member of the GDR Akademie der Künste in 1952 and was vice-president of this institution between 1957 and 1962.[6] He taught many master classes, his students including Friedrich Goldmann, Reiner Bredemeyer, Jörg Herchet, Hans-Karsten Raecke, Friedrich Schenker, Luca Lombardi and Karl Ottomar Treibmann.[citation needed]
Dessau was married four times: Gudrun Kabisch (1924), with whom he had two children, Elisabeth Hauptmann (1948), Antje Ruge (1952), and choreographer and director Ruth Berghaus (1954), with whom he had a son, Maxim Dessau (born 1954) who became a film director.[7]
Dessau died on 28 June 1979 at the age of 84, in Königs Wusterhausen, on the outskirts of Berlin.[1]
Dessau composed operas, scenic plays, incidental music, ballets, symphonies and other works for orchestra, and pieces for solo instruments as well as vocal music. From the 1920s on, he was fascinated by film music. He composed music for early movies of Walt Disney, as well as background music for silent pictures and early German films. In exile in Paris he wrote the oratorio Haggadah shel Pessach after a libretto by Max Brod based on the Haggadah. In the 1950s in collaboration with Bertolt Brecht he focused on the musical theatre. During that time several of his operas were produced. He also wrote Gebrauchsmusik (utility music) for the propaganda of the German Democratic Republic. At the same time he lobbied for the avant-garde music (e.g. Witold Lutosławski, Alfred Schnittke, Boris Blacher, Hans Werner Henze and Luigi Nono). His compositions were published by Schott Music.[5] The Akademie holds many of his works in its archives.[6]
All operas by Dessau were premiered at the Staatsoper Berlin.[6]
