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Friedrich von Flotow, 1866Grave of Friedrich von Flotow in the "Alter Friedhof" (old cemetery) in Darmstadt, Germany
Friedrich Adolf Ferdinand, Freiherr von Flotow (German:[ˈfʁiːdʁɪçfɔnˈfloːto]; 27 April 1812 – 24 January 1883) was a German composer. He is chiefly remembered for his opera Martha, which was popular in the 19th century and the early part of the 20th.
During the 1830 revolution he returned home, writing chamber music and operetta until it was safe to return to Paris.[1] He completed his first opera in 1835, Pierre et Cathérine, but his breakthrough came with Le naufrage de la Méduse (1839), based on the wreck of the warship Méduse. The three-act romantic opera Alessandro Stradella of 1844 is recognized as one of Flotow's finer works. Martha was first staged in Vienna at the Theater am Kärntnertor on 25 November 1847, and soon became one of the best-loved of all his operas.
In 1848 revolution again drove Flotow home.[1] Between 1856 and 1863 he served as Intendant of the court theatre at Schwerin. From 1863 he lived in either Paris or Vienna,[1] and he had the satisfaction of seeing his operas mounted as far away as Saint Petersburg and Turin. He died in Darmstadt.
In all, Flotow wrote about 30 operas. Many of these works were performed in different versions and under different titles, in German, French and sometimes other languages. Some survive, some are lost. All but Martha have fallen into obscurity, and even Martha is not nearly as often performed now as it was a century ago, though it is still sometimes staged, and there have been a number of attempts to revive other Flotow works (including Alessandro Stradella) during recent years.[when?]
The best-known single piece by Flotow is probably "Ach! so fromm, ach! so traut". It has been much recorded in its Italian version, "M'apparì tutt'amor".
