Bela Szabados

Bela Szabados was born on 3 June 1867 in Pest (Hungary). He first studied composition and the piano with Gyula Erkel, later with Robert Volkmann, Hans Koessler, Kornel Abranyi and Sandor Nikolits. In 1888 he joined the staff of the Academy of Music and Dramatic Art as accompanist and coach, and in 1893 was appointed piano teacher and coach at the reorganized Academy of Music. His first string quartet was awarded the Hungarian Millennial King’s Prize in 1896. He was appointed professor of singing at the academy in 1920 and two years later he became head of the newly established department for training professors of singing. In 1927 he was appointed principal of the National Conservatory, in which position he remained until his death in Budapest. Bela Szabados died on 5 September 1936.

As a composer Bela Szabados put an emphasis on vocal music. He composed at least 4 operas (The aunt is sleeping; Maria; The buffoon; Fanny), 11 operettas and several song cycles. Among his chamber music are 4 string quartets.

Die Küchen-Comtesse

In my possession is a handwritten full score of the operetta "Die Küchen-Comtesse" (The kitchen countess), a joint composition by Bela Szabados and Rezsö (Rudolf) Raimann. The work was composed in 1898 on a libretto by Josef Markus and Bernhard Buchbinder and premiered on 15 March 1898 at the Theater an der Wien. My manuscript was very likely done by a copyist and was given to the founder of the Theaterverlag Eirich, Oskar Friedrich Eirich. On the title page is his stamp "Dr. O. F. Eirich / Hof- & Gerichts-Advocat" and the date "Nov. 98". Oskar Eirich surely considered a publication of the operetta, but in the end - as time has proven - the work was not published.

Rezsö Raimann, or germanized Rudolf Raimann was born on 7 May 1861 in Veszprem (Hungary). He studied at the Vienna conservatory under Felix Otto Dessoff, Julius Epstein und Franz Krenn. Then he worked as a kapellmeister at theatres in Sopron, Graz, Cologne and at the Carltheater and the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. From 1889 to 1894 Rezsö Raimann was kapellmeister in Tata for Nikolaus Earl of Esterhazy. Finally he became kapellmeister in the Josefstädtertheater in Vienna. He died on 26 September 1913 in Vienna (Austria). Rezsö Raimann's work catalogue contains numerous operas and operettas, which was his main compositional genre.