Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari - His Music and His Life

The Italian Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari was born in Venice on January 12, 1876 as son of the German painter August Wolf. Ermanno's mother was Italian.

From 1893-1895, Wolf-Ferrari studied in Munich with Joseph Rheinberger (1839-1901). During 1902-1907, he became Conservatory Principal in Venice. In 1903, 1906 and 1909, Wolf-Ferrari brought out his most successful operas. "Die neugierigen Frauen" ("The curious women"), "Die vier Grobiane" ("The four rude guys") and "Susanne's Geheimnis" (Susan's Secret") with Italian "buffo-style" and wonderful intermission numbers. "Buffo" means "gust of wind" but also "bright, cheerful and comical".

Powerful sounds can be found in "Schmuck der Madonna" (1911, "Madonna's Juwelries"), but Wolf-Ferrari never reached the sonority i.e. of Giacomo Puccini. Most of all following operas remained as flops.

The instrumental and chamber music works have been mostly treated as second-rate - but in my opinion very much unjustly.

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari passed away in Venice on January 21, 1948.