composed a quantity of church music, cantatas, Lieder, part-songs, and instrumental works (symphonies, overtures, and concerted pieces for various instruments), most of which were printed, but have long since disappeared. His singing Method (Schott, Mayence, with German, French, and Italian words) is however still of value.
We append a list of his operas, classified according to the places where they were first produced:—Munich: 'Armida' (1778), 'Cora ed Alonzo' and 'Leonardo e Blandine' (1779), 'Helène and Paris' (German, 1780), 'Der Bettelstudent' (German operetta, 1781), 'Bellerophon' (German, 1782), 'Scherz, List, und Rache' (operetta, 1784), 'Circe' (1788), 'Jery und Bätely' (German, 1790), 'Psyche' and 'Der Sturm' (Shakespeare's 'Tempest,' (1793), 'Marie von Montalban' (German, 1798), 'Der Frauenbund' (German, 1805), 'Colmal' (1809), 'Die Blinden' (German, 1810). Naples: 'Antigone' (1791). Venice: 'Catone in Utica' (1791), 'I Fratelli rivali' and 'Il Sacrificio di Creta' (1792). Vienna: 'Armida und Rinaldo' (German melodrama with chorus and dances, 1793), 'I due Vedovi' and 'Das unterbrochene Opferfest' (German, 1796), 'Babylons Pyramiden' (German, with Mederitsch, nicknamed Gallus, 1797), and 'Das Labyrinth' (sequel to the 'Zauberflöte,' German, 1798).[1] Prague: 'Ogus, il Trionfo del bel sesso' (1796). Paris: 'Tamerlan' (1802), 'Castor e Pollux' (1806). London: 'Calypso' (1803), 'Proserpina' (1804), 'Zaira' (1805). Milan: 'I due Valdomiri' and 'Maometto' (1817), 'Etelinda' (1818), 'Sänger und Schneider' written in Geneva, but first produced in Munich (1820), his last work for the stage.
Of his church works there are now in the Royal Chapel at Munich 26 Masses, 2 Requiems, 3 Stabat Maters, and a quantity of graduales, offertoires, vespers, etc. For the Protestant court chapel he wrote 7 cantatas, 2 oratorios, a German Stabat Mater, and smaller anthems.
Winter's strong points were just declamation, agreeable melody, brilliant choral writing, and rich instrumentation, which he never suffered to overpower the voices. His weakness was in counterpoint, which he had never found an opportunity of mastering thoroughly. As a whole his church music is preferable to his operas; which, though vocal and melodious, have neither originality, greatness, dramatic force, fire, nor genius. His airs are specially weak, never seeming fully developed. Winter could amuse and entertain, but to seize the imagination, to touch, to agitate, was beyond him. This is why even his best and most popular works disappeared from the stage soon after his death.
[ C. F. P. ]
WIPPERN, Louise (Harriers-Wippern), bora 1835 or 1837 at Hildesheim or Bückeburg.[2] On June 16, 1857, she made her first appearance at Berlin and played Agatha in 'Der Freischütz,' and Alice in 'Robert le Diable' with such success as to obtain a permanent engagement in Berlin in September of the same year. She kept the post until her retirement, and was a great favourite both in dramatic and in the lighter parts, viz. Iphigenia, Jessonda, Pamina, Susanna, Fidelio, Inez (L'Africaine), the Princess of Navarre (John of Paris), Mrs. Ankerstrom (Gustavus III.), Gretchen (Faust), Elizabeth (Tannhäuser), Valentine, etc. In Dec. 1859 she married at Bückeburg an architect named Harriers. She sang for three seasons in London at Her Majesty's, appearing first, June 11, 1864, as Alice. She pleased 'on account of the freshness of her tone, her firm delivery of the notes, her extreme earnestness and her unquestionable feeling' (Musical World). She was an admirable actress. Her parts in London were but few, viz. Pamina (July 6, 1865), Amelia (Un Ballo), Leonora (Trovatore), Zerlina (Don Giovanni); but several of her best parts were in the hands of Fräulein Tietjens, then in the zenith of her fame and powers, and Mme. Harriers-Wippern was placed at great disadvantage. In May 1868, while at Königsberg, she was seized with diphtheria, which compelled her to visit Italy. She reappeared at Berlin Jan. 5, 1870, and sang there for a year or more, but her voice and strength were so much impaired that she was compelled to retire from regular work. She died Oct. 5, 1878, from another throat disease, at the Hydropathic Establishment at Görbersdorf (Silesia).
[ A. C. ]
WISE, Michael, born in Wiltshire (probably at Salisbury), about 1648, was admitted a child of the Chapel Royal under Captain Cooke in 1660. In 1663 he became a lay- clerk of St. George's Chapel, Windsor. In 1668 he was appointed organist and master of the choristers of Salisbury Cathedral. On Jan. 6, 1675–6 he was admitted a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in the place of Raphael Courteville, deceased, being described in the cheque-book as 'a counter-tenor from Salisbury.' At the time of the coronation of James II. (April 23, 1685) he was suspended from that office, and Edward Morton officiated in his stead. The cause of such suspension is unknown. There is in the Bagford collection in the British Museum library a coarse political song, published in London in 1680, entitled 'The Wiltshire Ballad,'[3] from which it appears that Wise had been engaged with other Wiltshire men in getting up a petition for calling a parliament. It is possible that this siding with those opposed to the Court policy may have been made the pretext for his suspension. On Jan. 27, 1686–7, Wise was appointed almoner and master of the choristers of St. Paul's Cathedral. But he did not hold those offices long. On Aug. 24, 1687, being at Salisbury, he had a dispute with his wife, in the heat of which he rushed out into the street, and the hour being late, was challenged by a watchman, with whom he commenced a quarrel, and received a blow on the head from the man's bill which killed him, The place of
