Franz von Suppé

Born Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo de Suppé in 1819 in Dalmatia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he became a composer and conductor in Vienna during the Romantic period. He wrote the first operetta set to a German libretto and produced dozens more, alongside substantial church music. Some operettas still play in German-speaking countries, but the works themselves faded while their overtures — Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna; Pique Dame — stayed in rotation. He died in 1895, remembered less for the theatre pieces than for the instrumental minutes that opened them.