Michael Umlauf (August 9, 1781 – June 20, 1842), was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n composer, conductor, and

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

ist. His father, Ignaz Umlauf, was also a notable composer. His sister, Elisabeth Hölzel (née Umlauf), had a career as a

contralto A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typica ...

and her son Gustav Hölzel was an important bass-baritone. Umlauf was born at

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. At an early age he became a violinist in the Vienna court orchestra. His earliest known compositions were a series of

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

scores for the court theatres dated 1804. He is listed in the theatre almanac of 1809 as Kapellmeister Gyrowetz’s deputy, and by the 1815 almanac he had advanced to fourth of the six Kapellmeisters at the Kärntnertortheater. Umlauf retired in 1825 during Barbaia’s direction of the court opera, and applied without success for the post of second Kapellmeister at the Stephansdom. It was 1840 before he again came to the fore, this time as music director at the two court theatres, but his lengthy absence had left him quite out of touch and he soon retired again, dying at Baden bei Wien not long after. Umlauf's name is most familiar from his connections with

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

, whose works he conducted on numerous occasions. In 1814 he conducted the premiere of the final revision of Beethoven's only opera, ''

Fidelio ''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Op. 72, is Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, wi ...

''. Ten years later, he conducted the premiere of Beethoven's '' Ninth Symphony''. As a composer Umlauf is best remembered for his ballet scores, especially ''Paul und Rosette'' and for four

Singspiele A Singspiel (; plural: ; ) is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera. It is characterized by spoken dialogue, which is alternated with ensembles, songs, ballads, and arias which were often strophic, or folk-like. ...

: ''Die Herrenhuterin'' (1804), ''Das Fest der Freude und der Liebe'' (1806), ''Der Grenadier'' (1812), and ''Das Wirtshaus von Granada'' (1812). In 1823-24, he was one of the 50 composers who composed a variation on a waltz by

Anton Diabelli Anton (or Antonio) Diabelli (5 September 17818 April 1858) was an Austrian music publisher, editor and composer. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltz on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote ...

for '' Vaterländischer Künstlerverein''.

Sources

* Peter Branscombe. The '' New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', edited by Stanley Sadie (1992). and 19th-century Austrian people 19th-century classical composers Austrian classical composers Austrian opera composers Male opera composers Austrian conductors (music) Male conductors (music) Musicians from Vienna 1781 births 1842 deaths Austrian male classical composers 19th-century male musicians {{Austria-composer-stub