Introduction

Biography

Himmel stu­died theo­lo­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Halle, but Fried­rich Wil­helm II, im­pressed with his mu­sic­al abi­li­ty, spon­sored his stu­dies in Dres­den un­der Jo­hann Gott­lieb Nau­mann.

He was ap­point­ed cham­ber com­pos­er in 1792, and Ka­pell­meis­ter in 1795.

During his ca­reer, he toured It­aly, Rus­sia, Scan­di­na­via, and cen­tral Europe, per­form­ing his op­eras

Works

• Il Pri­mo Na­vi­ga­tore, an opera (Ven­ice, It­aly: 1794)
• Isaaco, an oratorio (Berlin: 1792)
• Vasco da Ga­ma (Ber­lin: 1801)
• Frohsinn und Schwärm­er­ey (Ber­lin: 1801)
• Fanchon das Ley­er­mäd­chen (Ber­lin: 1804)