Roeckel, Joseph Augustus

1783-1870

 

German conductor and tenor singer; was born at Neumburg, in the Upper Palatinate. Nothing is known of his early musical study, but it is probable that he was a choir-boy. In 1804 he was engaged at Vienna as an opera singer, and in 1806 sang in the role of Florestan in Beethoven's Fidelio, revived at that time. In 1823 he became professor of singing at the Imperial Opera, and in 1828 opera director at Aix-la-Chapelle, and the next year introduced into Paris a German company for the performance of German opera, which proved a success. In 1832 he took this company to London, Hummel, who was Roeckel's brotherin-law, being conductor. He retired in 1835, returned to Germany in 1853, and died at Anhalt-Cothen.

 

His second son, Eduard, pupil of Hummel, went to England and settled in Bath as a teacher and pianist; he published numerous compositions for piano.