Who was Engelbert Humperdinck?

The composer Engelbert Humperdinck was born on 1st September 1854 in Siegburg and died on 27th September 1921 in Neustrelitz. From 1897 to 1901 Humperdinck lived in Boppard; today we still have a street named after him and the "Little Humperdinck Palace" both of which remind us of this well-known composer.
After studying at a grammar school in his home town, six years study at a Conservatorium in Cologne and a temporary period of study in Munich and Italy, Humperdinck moved with his parents to Xanten on the Lower Rhine. Richard Wagner summoned him for two years to Bayreuth. After Wagner's death (1883), Engelbert Humperdinck undertook study trips to France and Spain; he taught in Cologne, Barcelona and Frankfurt am Main. For a longer period he worked as an editor at the Schott Publishing House in Mainz; in 1896 he received the title of 'Professor'.
Humperdinck often spent time with his parents in Bonn. This is where he met his partner in love and where he also composed his fairytale opera "Hansel and Gretel" (1893), he finished the score for this in Frankfurt. This work pushed him to worldwide fame, and this musical success made all material worries disappear too, enabling him to take up permanent residence in his beloved Rhineland. In 1895 he bought the "Little Humperdinck Palace" in Boppard. Two years later he moved in, decorating and working the house and garden to his taste.
Dr. B. J. Kreuzberg writes in his article "Engelbert Humperdinck in Boppard" that, among other things : "Dizzying world success and an excess of recognition have not changed Humperdinck: He remains the same balanced, modest, proper, kind, humorous and loving person, who - like his intellectual and poetic wife Hedwig - valued a simple, private family life and cultivated many hearty friendships this side of the border and beyond.
 

Humperdinck's son Wolfram (born 1893) said in the biography of his father that the attractive and lively town situated conveniently on the romantic Central Rhine, bursting with history and surrounded by woodland hills and graceful valleys suited this nature-loving Rhineland composer. He also tells of how difficult his father's later separation from the area was, how hesitantly he accepted the honourable calling to Berlin.
Humperdinck's years in Boppard were not free from sickness. The death of his little daughter Olga (1899) hit the family hard. All too often, the peaceful monotony was disrupted by unavoidable music journeys (even to far flung lands). But Engelbert Humperdinck also had longer periods of work in his "Little Boppard Palace" and time for peaceful enjoyment. The "poetic composer of the German woodlands" (Walter Niemann) noted in his "Boppard sketch book" the melodies that flooded into his mind while on lonely, often early morning walks. They are perpetuated in his later creations. But he also enjoyed going for walks, chatting cheerfully with his family, with friends and cronies who found their way in droves - as welcome summer guests - to the "Little Palace". Evening discussions while playing bowls and drinking wine were stimulating and cheerful.
Some musical works were created during this time, alongside composition sketches to the comic opera "The Unwilling Marriage", the concert version of the "Royal Children" Overture and several songs, he also wrote the "Moorish Rhapsody".
The latter half of the 1900 brought a summons to the Academy of Art and the Royal High School for Music in Berlin. But even after moving to Berlin in autumn 1901, the "Little Palace" was to serve a further meaningful purpose: In the summer of 1907 to 1909 it became a refuge for reworking the "Royal Children", which was transferred in operatic form from the original melodrama (1897). This period of reworking was one of the happiest creative periods of this master of his art. This fairytale opera, given its debut at the end of December 1910 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, became a second world success which lasted up till after the last world war.
 

The "Little Humperdinck Palace"
Crowned with towers on a commanding sloping site built in a country house style at the foot of the Boppard Kreuzberg, the little palace originates from the end of 1870s.
The first owner and builder was Otto Verhagen from Cologne. Later the grand building belonged to, for example, Prince Erich-Hermann of Waldeck-Pyrmont (Hannover), before it was sold by Julius Seyffardt to Engelbert Humperdinck. It stayed in the possession of the Humperdincks from spring 1897 to 1911, but it only served the musician as a summer residence from 1901. Here in 1898 he composed, among other things, the "Moorish Rhapsody" and parts of the opera "The Unwilling Marriage". Between 1908 and 1909, E. Humperdinck allowed his beloved little palace to be arranged as a refuge for the composer of the fairytale opera "The Royal Children". Debuted on 28th December 1910 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, it was to become his second great world success. In 1911 the little Humperdinck palace went for a good 60 000 Mark to the Dutchman Karl-Wilhelm Layken. From 1928 to 1941 Humperdinck's son Wolfram owned the Engelbert house. He wrote about the house and about his father.
"As a friend of nature my father dedicated himself with great love to the improvement and enlargement of the garden. Soon after we moved in he bought the upper part of the property which can today be found supported by a wall behind the house. At that time, this "upper garden" was still a simple potato patch with some trees. In order to make an ornamental garden out of it, my father settled himself in the little tower on the roof of the house from where he had a good overview of the property and designed the future shape of the garden on paper."
The Humperdinck Society (registered organisation established in October 1991) recently had a meeting in the Little Humperdinck Palace - nowadays occupied by several young tenants. The ornamental garden which had previously been so lovingly designed now lies in part divided up into plots of land for building.


The "Humperdincks" in Boppard
The dream of every freelance artist to be able to dedicate themselves to their creations and whims in a beautiful place free from daily worries was realised by the composer Engelbert Humperdinck with the acquisition of a Rhineland estate in Boppard in the spring of 1897.
After his worldwide success with the fairytale opera "Hansel und Gretel", the nature-loving Humperdinck wanted to find peace and recuperation in the impressive little wine growing town and dedicate himself to his family. However, at the end of 1900 already, the musician answered his summons to the Prussian Academy of Art in Berlin.
At the end of the twenties his son Wolfram bought the Humperdinck house and fitted it out as a memorial in honour of his parents, and he also lived there with his family until the mid-thirties in Boppard.

The Engelbert Humperdinck Society (registered organisation).
"Suse, sweet Suse, what's rustling in the hay", "Little brother, come and dance with me" or "I want to sleep in the evenings" - we have Engelbert Humperdinck to thank for these charming songs from the sentimental fairytale opera. In Boppard on the Rhine, the composer lived and worked for many years. This is reason enough for several Humperdinck fans to form the Engelbert Humperdinck Society (registered organisation). The founding day was 2nd October 1991 on the occasion of a lecture by the granddaughter, Dr. Eva Humperdinck, in the old city hall in the town of Boppard. The society would like to maintain the cultural heritage, the life, work and creativity of this important, late romantic composer, in particular with regard to his Boppard years.