Peter Cornelius

German composer Peter Cornelius was a student of Panny, Esser, and later Dehn. Cornelius became acquainted with Humboldt, Arnim, and Eichendorff and was a close friend of the poet Heyse. Despite being in the circle of Liszt, Bülow, Bronsart, Raff, and Wagner, the independence of Cornelius, from the New German school, can only be considered profound. Cornelius met and worked with Hector Berlioz, who considered him to be an excellent translator of his librettos. Cornelius' operas and lieder elicit numerous and well-differentiated feelings through forms that are strikingly simple. He betrayed a subtle humor in his most famous opera, Der Barbier von Baghdad, by telling a love story through oriental motifs. The musical genres employed by Cornelius were operas, male choruses, lieder, and duets. ~ Keith Johnson