Richard Mohaupt

Richard Mohaupt (14 September 1904 in Breslau – 3 July 1957 in Reichenau an der Rax) was a German composer and Kapellmeister.

Biography

Richard Mohaupt studied music in his hometown Breslau. After his studies he worked as a répétiteur and music director in Breslau, Aachen and Weimar and after a concert tour through the Soviet Union he finally moved to Berlin in 1932. Four years later he had his first success with his ballet Die Gaunerstreiche der Courasche. The work was performed during the ballet festival which was part of the supporting programme of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. But already shortly after this success the Nazis denounced him with the expression "Music Bolshevism" and he was excluded from the Reichsmusikkammer. With this exclusion Richard Mohaupt could not work in Germany anymore and so emigrated to the USA in 1939 and settled in New York.

In the USA, Mohaupt did not compose musical theatre anymore because symphonic music sold much better. That led to the composition of his most famous work, the Town Piper Music, which was performed world wide in the 1950s. During his time in the United States he mainly composed for film, television and radio. His works were performed by renowned orchestras like the New York Philharmonic and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. He also composed operas at that time but mainly for German opera houses, among them were Max und Moritz (1949). In 1955 Richard Mohaupt moved back to Europe and lived in Austria until his death. He died before the world premiere of his last opera Der grüne Kakadu (on words by Arthur Schnitzler).

Compositions

Operas

• Die Wirtin von Pinsk (world premiere 1938 in Dresden, revised 1956)
• Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten (world premiere 1949 in Bremen)
• Double-Trouble or Die Zwillings-Komödie (world premiere 1954 in Louisville, Kentucky)
• Der grüne Kakadu (world premiere 1958 in Hamburg)

Ballets

• Die Gaunerstreiche der Courasche (after Grimmelshausen; world premiere 1936 in Berlin)
• Max und Moritz (after Wilhelm Busch; world premiere 1949 in Karlsruhe)
• Der Weiberstreik von Athen (after Lysistrata; world premiere 1957 in Karlsruhe)

Orchestral works

• Drei Episoden (world premiere 1938 in Amsterdam)
• Concerto for piano and orchestra (world premiere 1938 in Warschau; world premiere of the revised version at the IGNM festival in Frankfurt/Main in 1951)
• Town Piper Music (world premiere 1941 in New York)
• Symphony No. 1 "Rhythm and Variations" (world premiere 1942 in New York)
• Concerto for Orchestra (Based on Red Army Themes) (world premiere 1943 in New York)
• Concerto for violin and orchestra (world premiere 1954 in New York)
• Banchetto musicale (world premiere 1956 in Berlin)

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