Otto Nicolai

Carl Otto Ehrenfried Nicolai, born on June 9, 1810, in Königsberg, Prussia, was a German composer and conductor. He received his initial musical education from his father and later studied with Carl Friedrich Zelter in Berlin. His first symphony, composed in 1831, marked an early breakthrough. Nicolai became musician to the Prussian embassy in Rome and composed several operas, notably Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, based on Shakespeare's comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor. He established himself as a major figure in Vienna’s concert life during the early 1840s. On May 11, 1849, just two days after being appointed Hofkapellmeister at the Berlin Staatsoper and two months after the premiere of Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Nicolai collapsed and died from a cerebral hemorrhage. He was elected a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Arts on the same day of his death.