Richard Hageman
Richard Hageman was a Dutch-American composer and musician. Born in Leeuwarden on 9 July 1881, he studied in Amsterdam with a stipend granted at the request of Emma of the Netherlands. He also worked as a piano teacher and studied at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and the Amsterdam Conservatory.
Hageman moved to Paris before accompanying the singer Yvette Guilbert on an American tour after her regular pianist declined the trip. He became a United States citizen. From 1914 to 1932, he worked as a conductor and pianist for the Metropolitan Opera, and he also appeared as a guest conductor, including with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.
He spent time in Europe again in 1932, when he wrote the opera Caponsacchi, also known in German as Tragedy in Arezzo. Based on Robert Browning's The Ring and the Book, the opera was performed several times but was banned in Germany during the rise of Nazism. From 1938 to 1943, Hageman conducted summer concerts at the Hollywood Bowl.
Hageman became known for his film scores for films directed by John Ford. He shared an Academy Award in 1939 for the music for Stagecoach. His other film scores included The Long Voyage Home (1940), The Shanghai Gesture (1941), The Fugitive (1947), Fort Apache (1948), 3 Godfathers (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and Wagon Master (1950). He joined ASCAP in 1950.
He also acted in small film roles, including as a conductor in The Great Caruso. In 1951, he returned briefly to the Netherlands to promote The Toast of New Orleans, in which he appeared. During that visit, it emerged that he had been born in 1881; he had previously believed his birth year to be 1884.
Hageman was the son of the musician Maurice Hageman and Maurice's second wife, Francisca van Westerhoven. He married three singers—Rosina van Dyck, Renée Thornton, and Eleanora Rogers, also known as Elanora Ruggeri—and accompanied them at the piano for many years. None of the marriages produced children. He died in Beverly Hills, California, on 6 March 1966, aged 84.
In 2014, the Richard Hageman Aqueduct opened at Rijksweg 31. A plaque was installed in 2016 at his birthplace, Sint Jacobsstraat 35, in Leeuwarden.