Composer, Librettist. One of Austria's most frequently performed opera composers in the years before World War II. Bittner's distinctively nationalist stage works, for which he wrote his own texts, were fantasies based on folk or fairy tales and typically set in the Alps. "The Infernal Gold" (1916) was his greatest success. His other operas include "The Red Greed" (1907), "The Musician" (1909), "The Mountain Lake" (1911), "The Rose Garden" (1923), and "The Violets" (1934). Bittner was born in Vienna, and primarily self-taught as a musician. He pursued a legal career and was employed as a judge in Lower Austria and at the Ministry of Justice (1920 to 1922) before retiring to devote himself to music. He received many state awards and in 1925 was elected to the German Academy of Arts in Berlin. A stroke left him confined to a wheelchair during his last years but he continued to compose, leaving a Requiem unfinished at his death. Beyond the opera stage he produced a mass (the "Missa Austriaca"), symphonic poems, two string quartets, and songs. His wife was famed contralto Emilie Werner Bittner.
Composer, Librettist. One of Austria's most frequently performed opera composers in the years before World War II. Bittner's distinctively nationalist stage works, for which he wrote his own texts, were fantasies based on folk or fairy tales and typically set in the Alps. "The Infernal Gold" (1916) was his greatest success. His other operas include "The Red Greed" (1907), "The Musician" (1909), "The Mountain Lake" (1911), "The Rose Garden" (1923), and "The Violets" (1934). Bittner was born in Vienna, and primarily self-taught as a musician. He pursued a legal career and was employed as a judge in Lower Austria and at the Ministry of Justice (1920 to 1922) before retiring to devote himself to music. He received many state awards and in 1925 was elected to the German Academy of Arts in Berlin. A stroke left him confined to a wheelchair during his last years but he continued to compose, leaving a Requiem unfinished at his death. Beyond the opera stage he produced a mass (the "Missa Austriaca"), symphonic poems, two string quartets, and songs. His wife was famed contralto Emilie Werner Bittner.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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