Hugo Felix

Hugo Victor Felix, born Felix Hugo Hayman on 19 November 1866 in Budapest, Austrian Empire, was an Austrian composer of operettas and musicals who later became active on Broadway as both a composer and book writer. He died on 25 August 1934 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of sixty-seven.

Felix was the son of Moritz Hayman, a Hungarian-Austrian merchant who died in 1896, and Eugenie Bachrich, a Slovakian-Austrian woman who died in 1908. He received his education in Vienna, where he earned a Doctorate in Science from Vienna University, before choosing to pursue a career in music rather than chemistry.

His compositional career began with the operetta Die Kätzchen, which received its first production in Lemberg in 1890 and was subsequently staged in Vienna in 1892. Further works followed, including Husarenblut, produced in Vienna in 1894, and Rhodope, staged in both Vienna and Berlin in 1900. His most successful work was Madame Sherry, which premiered in Berlin in 1902. The Merveilleuses was produced in London in 1906. Alongside his compositional output, Felix served as music director of the Carltheater in Vienna from the late 1890s through 1906, during which time he brought several British works to Vienna, adapting their librettos and scores. He also contributed interpolated numbers to various musical comedies during this period.

Felix relocated to the United States, where Madame Sherry achieved success in 1912, and he remained in the country for the rest of his life. His Broadway credits include the musicals Pom-pom, Lassie, Peg-O'-My-Dreams, Tantalizing Tommy, and The Sweetheart Shop, for which he served as composer and book writer.