Humperdinck, Engelbert

Humperdinck, Engelbert (1854-  ), German musical composer, was born at Siegburg, in the Rhine Province, and studied under F. Hiller at Cologne, and F. Lachner and J. Rheinberger at Munich. In 1879, by means of a scholarship, he went to Italy, where he met Wagner at Naples; and on the latter’s invitation he went to Bayreuth and helped to produce Parsifal there next year. He travelled for the next few years in Italy and Spain but in 1890 became a professor at Frankfort, where he remained till 1896. In 1900 he became the head of a school in Berlin. His fame as a composer was made by his charming children’s opera Hänsel und Gretel in 1893, founded very largely (like his later operas) on folk-tunes; but his works also include other forms of music, in all of which his mastery of technique is apparent.