Sucher, Josef

1844-

Noted Hungarian conductor; born at Dorbor, Eisenburg. He became a chorister in the Court Chapel at Vienna in 1854, and even then composed considerable music. He at first studied law. Then deciding to make music his career he studied under Sechter. At Vienna he held the posts of vice-conductor of the Gesangverein (singing society), conductor of the rehearsals of the Court Opera, and afterwards conductor of the Comic Opera. In 1876 he was given the cqnductorship of the Stadttheatre, Leipsic, for which he engaged the prima donna, Rose Hasselbeck, whom he married in 1877. In 1879 he became conductor at Hamburg, and in 1888 at the Court Opera in Berlin, from which he resigned in 1898. Sucher has composed cantatas, among them Waldfraulein; overtures; masses; and songs, the best known of which is the cycle, Ruheort.