Wolf-Ferrari, Ermanno (1876–1948)

Italian composer. His operas include Il segreto di Susanna/Susanna's Secret (1909) and the realistic tragedy I gioielli di Madonna/The Jewels of the Madonna (1911).

He was sent to Rome to study art by his German father, who was a painter. However, he turned to music and studied with Joseph Rheinberger at Munich. In 1899 he sent his oratorio to Venice and succeeded in having it performed, and in 1900 he brought out his first opera, after which his stage successes were frequently repeated. Many of his operas were first produced in Germany, including several that sought to evoke the spirit of 18th-century Venetian comedy. In 1902–12 he was director of the Liceo Benedetto Marcello at Venice.

Works Opera Cenerentola (1900), Le donne curiose (1903), I quattro rusteghi (1906), Il segreto di Susanna (1909), I gioielli della Madonna (1911), Amor medico (after Molière, 1913), Gli amanti sposi (1925), Das Himmelskleid (1927), Sly (after Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, 1927), La vedova scaltra (1931), Il campiello (1936), La dama boba (after Lope de Vega, 1939), Gli dei a Tebe (1943).

Cantatas La Sulamita and La vita nuova (after Dante, 1903).

Orchestral violin concerto, chamber symphony for strings, woodwind, piano, and horn (1901).

Chamber piano quintet, piano trio, two violin and piano sonatas.

Other organ pieces; cello pieces; Rispetti for soprano and piano.