German-born Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832) is best known as a prolific composer of facile and intermediate music for the piano. Blind in one eye owing to a childhood accident, Kuhlau's career as a pianist nevertheless began when he was 18. In 1810, Kuhlau permanently settled in Copenhagen and entered into the service of the Danish royal court, working as a singing teacher and composing opera on the side. His most successful operas were William Shakespeare (1827) and The Elf's Hill (1828); others were considerably less so. Kuhlau's house burned down in 1830, and ill-health plagued him for the short time he had left.