August Röckel

Carl August Röckel (1 December 1814 – 18 June 1876) was a German composer and conductor. He was a friend of Richard Wagner and active in the Revolutions of 1848.

Biography

Röckel was born in Graz. His father, Joseph August Röckel, was a tenor, choir director and theatre entrepreneur who sang the role of Florestan at the premiere of the second version of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio in 1806. With his father, he experienced theatrical life in Vienna, Paris and London. He acted in Paris as assistant to Gioacchino Rossini at the Théâtre des Italiens, and was on a later visit to Paris an eyewitness to the Paris "July revolution" of 1830.

After he completed his musical training with his uncle, Johann Nepomuk Hummel (who was married to his father's sister Elisabeth Röckel), he was music director in Bamberg starting in 1838. He lived in Vienna from 1839. For several years after 1840 he was conductor at the Weimar Court Theatre, where he composed his opera Farinelli. In 1843 he came to Dresden, where he was at the Court Theatre, where Richard Wagner was music director. He was assistant conductor ("2. Musikdirektor") to Wagner for five years until 1848. Influenced by the music of Wagner, he renounced a performance of his own opera, which he had sent to Dresden. Wagner became a close friend, especially during the time of 1849 Dresden uprising, and the two would go on long walks together.