Camillo Walzel was an German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 librettist

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 and theatre director, who wrote under the pseudonym F Zell.

Walzel was born in Magdeburg

Magdeburg

Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....

. In his early years, he worked in his father lithographic factory, then studied in the Wiener Akademie der bildenden Künste, before joining the army. He later became an editor for a newspaper and then an employee of the Danube Steamship Company in 1856.

He became an operetta librettist in the 1860s and eventually, from 1884 to 1889, artistic director of the Theater an der Wien

Theater an der Wien

The Theater an der Wien is a historic theatre on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district of Vienna. Completed in 1801, it has seen the premieres of many celebrated works of theatre, opera, and symphonic music...

. One of his best known works was the libretto of Karl Millöcker

Karl Millöcker

Carl Joseph Millöcker , was an Austrian composer of operettas and a conductor.He was born in Vienna, where he studied the flute at the Vienna Conservatory. While holding various conducting posts in the city, he began to compose operettas...

's operetta

Operetta

Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...

 Der Bettelstudent

Der Bettelstudent

Der Bettelstudent is an operetta in three acts by Carl Millöcker with a German libretto by Camillo Walzel and Richard Genée, based on Les noces de Fernande by Victorien Sardou and The Lady of Lyons by Edward Bulwer-Lytton...

, which he co-wrote with his long-term collaborator Richard Genée

Richard Genée

Franz Friedrich Richard Genée was a Prussian born Austrian librettist, playwright, and composer.Genée was born in Danzig. One of his best known works was the libretto of Karl Millöcker's operetta Der Bettelstudent, which he co-wrote with Friedrich Zell .In 1876, Genée composed the operetta Der...

). His other libretti with Genée included Cagliostro in Wien

Cagliostro in Wien

Cagliostro in Wien is an operetta in three acts by Johann Strauss II to a libretto by F. ZellF. Zell was the pen name of Camillo Walzel . and Richard Genée...

(1875), Der lustige Krieg

Der lustige Krieg

Der lustige Krieg is the name of a three-act operetta composed by Johann Strauss II. The work was first performed on 25 November 1881 at the Theater an der Wien. Its libretto was by F Zell and Richard Genée...

(1881) and Eine Nacht in Venedig

Eine Nacht in Venedig

Eine Nacht in Venedig is an operetta in three acts by Johann Strauss II and was premiered in Berlin on 3 October 1883 in the Neues Friedrich Wilhelmstadisches Theater, and is the only one of the operettas of Johann Strauss II ever to be premiered outside Vienna...

(1883), all with music by Johann Strauss II

Johann Strauss II

Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...

.

He died in Vienna.