Edward Jakobowski

Edward Jakobowski (17 April 1856 – 29 April 1929) At age six, he moved to Vienna, Austria, where he lived for some 15 years and was given a musical education. In the late 1870s he lived in Paris for three years. In 1881, he returned to London.

Jakobowski's most successful work by far, Erminie, opened in 1885 in London. It was revived extensively and toured internationally, playing with extraordinary success on Broadway from 1886. None of his other works had more than a short run or two, although many of them toured profitably. Tarantella (1899; libretto: Alfred Murray) and Winsome Winnie (1903). He was one of eight composers who contributed to Pat in 1892. Two short operettas in 1893 with libretti by B. C. Stephenson, The Improvisatore and A Venetian Singer, made little impact.

Jakobowski was married twice, the second time in New York in 1895 to Clara Brown, which ended in a London divorce in 1901. In 1902, he was declared bankrupt with debts of £1,090 (£ in adjusted for inflation).

He died at the Infirmary, Friern Barnet, north London, in 1929. His estate was valued at 47 pounds, 8 shillings.