Friedrich Ludwig Æmilius Kunzen (24 September 1761 – 28 January 1817) was a Germancomposer andconductor who lived and worked for much of his life inDenmark.
He was born inLübeck, where his father, Adolph Carl Kunzen, was an organist and his grandfather, Johann Paul Kunzen (1696-1757), had composed for theHamburg Opera in the 1720s. In 1781 he began studying law inKiel, but his true love was music, and in 1784, encouraged by composerJohann Abraham Peter Schulz, he moved toCopenhagen to pursue a musical career.
He performed as a pianist at court and in clubs, and in the next few years had successes with a memorial cantata for Count Otto Thott and music for the marriage of Crown PrincessLouise Auguste toFrederik Christian II, Duke of Augustenborg, as well as theatre music. In 1788 he met the young authorJens Baggesen, and the two collaborated on the operaHolger Danske, which premiered the following year, causing the "Holger Feud," as a result of which Kunzen temporarily left the country. For the next two years he lived inBerlin.
From 1792 until 1794 he worked as musical director of the newFrankfurter National-Theater, where he put onMozart'sDon Giovanni andThe Magic Flute. During his stay inFrankfurt he married one of the foremost singers of the era, Johanna Margaretha Antonetta Zuccarini (1766-1842).[citation needed]
In 1794 he and his wife moved toPrague, where he worked as an opera director; the following year he was offered the position of musical director of the Royal Orchestra inCopenhagen; he immediately accepted and returned with his wife to his beloved city in 1795. His obligations were numerous, his salary poor, and his enthusiasm about Mozart was met with indigenous scepticism. As a consequence,Cosi fan tutte failed spectacularly in 1798.[1][page needed] However, he had successes withDon Giovanni (1807) andDie Entführung aus dem Serail (1813).[citation needed]
Aside from an occasional composition for the court and city, he composed the oratorioOpstandelsen (The Resurrection, 1796), the grand operaErik Ejegod (1798), and various hymns andSingspiele. In 1809, he was appointed professor, and in 1811 he was honoured as a Knight of theOrder of the Dannebrog and appointed a member of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Music. On 28 January 1817, he suffered a stroke and died after an argument with Jens Baggesen over a plagiarism controversy concerning the operaTrylleharpen (The Magic Harp), which had been performed in 1806 inVienna andHamburg in German asOssians Harfe, but without success.[citation needed]
