Boccaccio

Franz von Suppé (1819-1895) is regarded as the actual founder of the Viennese operetta. Even in excellent encyclopedias entries on this composer are marginal only. Young Franz von Suppé came to Vienna from the province of Dalmatia, and initially composed the music for performances in the Vienna suburb theaters, he wrote music for popular farces, for folk plays and ballets. His growing success made him compose the music for stage works of his own, especially for a number of one-act operettas. In most cases, only their sparkling overtures have survived such as “The Beautiful Galathea”. In 1879, following the acclaim of “Fatinitza”, he enjoyed his greatest success with the operetta “Boccaccio”. The stirring “Boccaccio March” stems from the operetta of that name.