Wolf-Ferrari
Emanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948) was born in Venice in 1876. His mother was Italian and his father was German. Ferrari was his mother's maiden-name, which he added to his own surname in 1895.
Although he studied piano from an early age, music was not the primary passion of his young life. He studied painting in Rome and Venice, then he moved to Munich. Here he changed his mind about his studies, and switched to music at the Munich Conservatory.
He moved back to Venice, but his early operas failed there, so he returned to Germany where he had greater success. His comic operas became the most performed in the periuod up to the outbreak of war in 1914. In particular, his 'serious' opera the "Jewels of the Madonna" was a hit.
He spent the war years in Switzerland, then Austria. He only returned to his city of birth, Venice, in 1946, and he died there two years later.