Karl Millöcker

Ich schenk' mein Herz reached the stage in Berlin in 1931, in Die Dubarry — Theo Mackeben's nine-scene rebuilding of Gräfin Dubarry, the operetta Millöcker had brought out at the Theater an der Wien on 31 October 1879. Millöcker had been dead for over thirty years by then. Born in Vienna on 29 April 1842, he played the flute in theatre orchestras before taking conducting posts in Graz and then in Vienna. Der Bettelstudent, premiered at the Theater an der Wien in 1882, brought an international success large enough to let him give up conducting altogether, and Gasparone followed in 1884. He died at Baden bei Wien on 31 December 1899. He had played the flute at the Theater in der Josefstadt, and it was Franz von Suppé who helped him to the Graz appointment; from 1869 his post was at the Theater an der Wien itself. Der arme Jonathan stands among the later stage works.