Music

With Wagner’s Parsifal currently being staged by the Prague National Theater Opera company (see “Parsifal at the National Theater” from Night & Day), the Velvet Violin was reminded of the influence of Germany and Austria on this quintessentially Italian genre.

Here’s a rundown of ten operas well known internationally that were originally set to a German text.

Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio)

This opera by Wolfang Amadeus Mozart was written for a libretto by Leipzig native Christoph Friedrich Bretzner. The story centers around the attempt of the hero Belmonte and his servant Pedrillo to rescue the beloved Konstanze from the clutches of a Turkish governor.

Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde)

This romantic drama is thought to be one of the high points of Wagner’s oeuvre, and is credited with influencing many composers who followed such as Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. Based on a German libretto, the opera dramatizes the medieval love story of an English knight and an Irish princess.

Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)

Another of Mozart’s famous operas was this one set to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder  of Vienna. Having originally engaged Mozart to write the music for a puppet show, Schikaneder was forced to alter his story after a rival production emerged in the meantime, adding undertones of freemasonry to this opera.

Arabella

Richard Strauss penned this opera based on a comedic libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Set in 1860s Vienna, the titular beauty’s family faces ruin unless she marries into money. When a loving suitor unexpectedly appears, Arabella’s happiness is threatened by a web of misunderstanding and deception.

Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s 16^th Century classic was made into an opera by Austrian composer Wilhelm Kienzl, who also wrote the libretto. He completed the score on Oct. 9 1897, the 350^th anniversary of the author’s birth.

Orpheus

This three-act opera by Georg Philipp Telemann premiered in Hamburg in 1726. Most of the work is in German, although it contains passages in French and Italian as well. In the late 1990s, the opera was recorded by the award-winning Berlin-based Academy for Ancient Music.

Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (The Merry Wives of Windsor)

William Shakespeare’s comedic play was adapted for opera by Otto Nicolai based on a libretto by Hermann Salomon Mosenthal. While the opera’s popularity is mostly restricted to Germany, its overture is frequently performed all over the world.

Kepler

Premiered in ye olde 2009, notable modern composer Philip Glass wrote this opera based on a libretto by Martina Winkel in German and Latin to mark the tenure of Linz as European Capital of Culture. It tells the story of 17^th Century mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, who also spent part of his life here in Prague.

Intermezzo

This two-act opera was described by its creator Richard Strauss as a bourgeois comedy with symphonic interludes. Premiered in the 1920s in Dresden, it was later translated into English and performed by Santa Fe Opera and the London Philharmonic. The piece features fictionalized versions of the composer and his wife, the latter of whom was reportedly disgusted about not being told she was in it before seeing the premiere.

Hänsel und Gretel (Hansel and Gretel)

19^th Century composer Engelbert Humperdinck penned this “fairy tale opera”, in his words, based on a libretto by his sister depicting the Grimm brothers’ famous tale. Conceived as a Christmas piece, it is still often performed during the holidays to this day.