Paul Dessau

Paul Dessau (19 December 189428 June 1979) was a German composer and conductor. He collaborated with Bertolt Brecht and composed incidental music for his plays, and several operas based on them.

Biography Dessau was born in Hamburg into a musical family. his cousin, Max Winterfeld, became known under the name Jean Gilbert as a composer of operettas;

From 1909, Dessau studied with Florian Zajic at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin, majoring in violin.

Dessau died on 28 June 1979 at the age of 84, in Königs Wusterhausen, on the outskirts of Berlin. Einstein, 1969–1973, libretto by Karl Mickel, 16 February 1974

Further reading and documentary Dessau, Paul. Notizen zu Noten, ed. Fritz Henneberg (Reclam, Leipzig 1974). Dessau, Paul. Aus Gesprächen (VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1974). Henneberg, Fritz. Dessau – Brecht. Musikalische Arbeiten. (Henschel, Berlin 1963). Hennenberg, Fritz. Paul Dessau. Eine Biographie. (VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1965). Lucchesi, Joachim (ed.). Das Verhör in der Oper: Die Debatte um die Aufführung "Das Verhör des Lukullus" von Bertolt Brecht und Paul Dessau (BasisDruck, Berlin 1993). Paul Dessau - Let´s Hope For The Best - film documentary (Yellow Table Media/NDR/ARTE, Leipzig 2023)