Viktor Ernst Nessler (1841-1890).
- Profession: Composer
- Residences: Leipzig
- Relation to Mahler: Composer of Der Trompeter von Säkkingen. See also premiere Gustav Mahler: 1884 Concert Kassel 23-06-1884 – Der Trompeter von Sackingen (Premiere).
- Correspondence with Mahler:
- Born: 28-01-1841 Baldenheim (near Sélestat), Germany
- Died: 28-05-1890 Strasbourg, Germany. Aged 49.
- Buried: 00-00-0000 St. Gallen cemetery, Strasbourg, Germany
Also: Victor
Mentioned in diary Natalie Bauer-Lechner (1858-1921).
Viktor Ernst Nessler was an Alsatian composer who worked mainly in Leipzig.
In Strasbourg he began his university career with the study of theology, but he concluded it with the production of a light opera entitled Fleurette (1864). To complete his knowledge of music Nessler went to Leipzig to study with Moritz Hauptmann. In 1870, he was appointed chorus master and later conductor of the Caroltheater, Leipzig.
His musically conservative, mock-Gothic, fairy-tale operas, notably Der Rattenfänger von Hameln (The Pied Piper of Hamelin) (1879) and Der Trompeter von Säkkingen (1884), based on the famous poem by Joseph Victor von Scheffel (1826-1886), were very popular in the 19th century. Arthur Nikisch (1855-1922) composed an orchestral arrangement of material from Der Trompeter von Säkkingen. See also premiere Gustav Mahler: 1884 Concert Kassel 23-06-1884 – Der Trompeter von Sackingen (Premiere).
Besides a number of other operas, Nessler wrote many songs and choral works; but it is with the Trompeter von Säkkingen that his name is most closely associated. In 1895 a monument to him by the sculptor Alfred Marzolff was erected in Strasbourg.