Erwin und Elmire
Encyclopedia
Erwin und Elmire is a singspiel
in two acts by Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, with a libretto by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
, after Oliver Goldsmith
's ballad of Angelica and Edwin, The Hermit, in his sentimental novel The Vicar of Wakefield
.
Goethe moved to Weimar
, in circumstances decisive for his future career, in November 1775. There he was introduced to Anna Amalia (1739–1807), the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
, a formidable political figure who was also a fine amateur composer. Goethe's arrival in Weimar coincided with her partial withdrawal from political life as her son had reached the age of maturity, and Anna seized the opportunity to provide her own setting of Erwin and Elmire for the Court Theatre, where it was first performed on 24 May 1776
.
's Lettres sur la Suisse (1783). Victor Pelissier's opera Edwin and Angelina, or The Banditti which premiered in New York in 1796, was based upon an adaptation by Elihu Hubbard Smith.
Goethe made his adaptation of Erwin und Elmire, as the ballad became known in Germany, in 1773, attracted, no doubt, to the parallels between the tale and his faltering relationship with Lili Schönemann, to whom the text is dedicated. It was published in 1775 as a Schauspiel mit Gesang, the first time this designation appeared in Germany.
The great success of Goethe's reworking of this sentimental tale no doubt derives in large measure from the fact that it touched upon many social and cultural preoccupations of the day. Its theme of reconciliation, achieved in rustic surroundings, was a pointed critique on the social pretensions of emerging middle-class society. The literary-poetic figures of the 'hermit' and the 'hut' were in fact to become recurring themes in Goethe's writings, also helping to frame his life-long exploration of the difficulty of reconciling steadfast virtues with restless desires.
, opera buffa
, and folk song to create a successful dramatic whole, one in which all four protagonists are characterised as much by the nuances provided by the musical accompaniment as by the content and register of the words they speak. The predominantly buffa style, for instance, is ideal for a character like Bernardo who shares its potent mix of humour and humanity. On the other hand the lovers' passion is aptly reflected in the application of the concerted style common to opera seria. Elmire’s remorse gives rise to a strophic song ("Ein Veilchen") that, through its unassuming lyricism, leaves us in no doubt as to her sincerity. And Erwin's opening aria ("Ihr verblühet, süsse Rosen") amounts to a musical ennoblement—which, given he is in fact of lowly birth, suggests that neither Amalia nor Goethe sought to restrict a noble temperament merely to those of noble birth.
The dramatic effectiveness of these stylistic adaptations marks Anna Amalia's Erwin und Elmire as a major early achievement in the development of German opera
.
, UK, in 1999. A further performance was given 29 February 2008 in Central Hall, Melbourne
, Australia. This was the first performance of the fully restored score by FuroreVerlag. This was followed by a production at the Ekhof Festival in Gotha in the summer of 2009.
The Second Act opens with Erwin in his hideaway hut in the country. Bernardo arrives and announces that that Elmire will shortly visit him unaware of his true identity. He disguises Erwin as a hermit. When Elmire arrives, she proceeds to make confession, admitting to having driven her lover to despair by feigning indifference in deference to social propriety. Erwin, convinced at last that Elmire really loves him, reveals his true identity to the delight of all concerned.
, was made by Johann André
and first performed in May 1775 in Frankfurt
. After Anna Amalia’s, several more settings were to follow, including ones by Carl David Stegmann
(Hamburg, 1776), Ernst Wilhelm Wolf
(Weimar, 1785) and Karl Christian Agthe
(Ballenstedt, 1785). The most recent was by the Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck
(1886–1957) which premiered in 1915.
Goethe revised the libretto in 1787/88 while touring in Italy, introducing a secondary pair of lovers into the tale, and adpating the spoken dialogue into recitative. This version was set by Johann Friedrich Reichardt
and received its premiere in Berlin in early 1793.
The Romanze "Ein Veilchen
" from Erwin und Elmire was the only setting of Goethe's text made by Mozart
, his song K. 476 (1785). The story eventually became the subject of satire: in Gilbert and Sullivan
’s operetta Trial by Jury
(1875), the two lovers (here Edwin and Angelina) become the principal parties to a divorce case.
Singspiel
A Singspiel is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera...
in two acts by Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, with a libretto by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
, after Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...
's ballad of Angelica and Edwin, The Hermit, in his sentimental novel The Vicar of Wakefield
The Vicar of Wakefield
The Vicar of Wakefield is a novel by Irish author Oliver Goldsmith. It was written in 1761 and 1762, and published in 1766, and was one of the most popular and widely read 18th-century novels among Victorians...
.
Goethe moved to Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
, in circumstances decisive for his future career, in November 1775. There he was introduced to Anna Amalia (1739–1807), the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
The Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was created in 1809 by the merger of the Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach. It was raised to a Grand duchy in 1815 by resolution of the Vienna Congress. In 1877, it officially changed its name to the Grand Duchy of Saxony , but this name was...
, a formidable political figure who was also a fine amateur composer. Goethe's arrival in Weimar coincided with her partial withdrawal from political life as her son had reached the age of maturity, and Anna seized the opportunity to provide her own setting of Erwin and Elmire for the Court Theatre, where it was first performed on 24 May 1776
1776 in music
-Events:*Charles Burney publishes his History of Music*Bolshoi Theatre hosts its first annual opera season*Court Theatre in Stockholm built by King Gustav III of Sweden*Giovanni Paisiello is invited to the court of Catherine the Great-Popular music:...
.
Goethe's libretto
The ballad of Angelica and Edwin was first published privately in 1764, and two years later was incorporated into Chapter 8 of The Vicar of Wakefield. Its success was immediate and widespread. Goethe was not the only literary figure who was to adapt the tale; it appears, for instance, in de LabordeAlexandre de Laborde
Comte Louis-Joseph-Alexandre de Laborde was a French antiquary, liberal politician and writer, a member of the Académie des Sciences morales et politiques , under the rubric political economy.-Early years:...
's Lettres sur la Suisse (1783). Victor Pelissier's opera Edwin and Angelina, or The Banditti which premiered in New York in 1796, was based upon an adaptation by Elihu Hubbard Smith.
Goethe made his adaptation of Erwin und Elmire, as the ballad became known in Germany, in 1773, attracted, no doubt, to the parallels between the tale and his faltering relationship with Lili Schönemann, to whom the text is dedicated. It was published in 1775 as a Schauspiel mit Gesang, the first time this designation appeared in Germany.
The great success of Goethe's reworking of this sentimental tale no doubt derives in large measure from the fact that it touched upon many social and cultural preoccupations of the day. Its theme of reconciliation, achieved in rustic surroundings, was a pointed critique on the social pretensions of emerging middle-class society. The literary-poetic figures of the 'hermit' and the 'hut' were in fact to become recurring themes in Goethe's writings, also helping to frame his life-long exploration of the difficulty of reconciling steadfast virtues with restless desires.
Anna Amalia's score
The score is testament to the high level of musical attainment of the composer. Anna Amalia draws upon models from both opera seriaOpera seria
Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to c. 1770...
, opera buffa
Opera buffa
Opera buffa is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ‘commedia in musica’, ‘commedia per musica’, ‘dramma bernesco’, ‘dramma comico’, ‘divertimento giocoso' etc...
, and folk song to create a successful dramatic whole, one in which all four protagonists are characterised as much by the nuances provided by the musical accompaniment as by the content and register of the words they speak. The predominantly buffa style, for instance, is ideal for a character like Bernardo who shares its potent mix of humour and humanity. On the other hand the lovers' passion is aptly reflected in the application of the concerted style common to opera seria. Elmire’s remorse gives rise to a strophic song ("Ein Veilchen") that, through its unassuming lyricism, leaves us in no doubt as to her sincerity. And Erwin's opening aria ("Ihr verblühet, süsse Rosen") amounts to a musical ennoblement—which, given he is in fact of lowly birth, suggests that neither Amalia nor Goethe sought to restrict a noble temperament merely to those of noble birth.
The dramatic effectiveness of these stylistic adaptations marks Anna Amalia's Erwin und Elmire as a major early achievement in the development of German opera
German opera
Opera in German is the opera of the German-speaking countries, most notably Germany and Austria...
.
Recent performance history
Anna Amalia's setting had no modern revival until a staged performance by students of the University of CambridgeUniversity of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, UK, in 1999. A further performance was given 29 February 2008 in Central Hall, Melbourne
Central Hall, Melbourne
Central Hall is a building that stands at the end of Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia. This structure today serves as a centrepiece of Australian Catholic University's St. Patrick's Campus...
, Australia. This was the first performance of the fully restored score by FuroreVerlag. This was followed by a production at the Ekhof Festival in Gotha in the summer of 2009.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 24 May 1776 (Conductor: –) |
|---|---|---|
| Olympia, mother of Elmire | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
|
| Elmire, in love with Erwin | soprano | |
| Bernardo, mentor to Elmire | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... or soprano |
|
| Erwin, in love with Elmire | tenor or soprano |
Synopsis
Olympia, mother of Elmire, laments the restrictive social graces of the young and reminisces on the carefree days of her own youth. Elmire, her daughter, appears and seems inconsolable, she tries in vain to cheer her up. After Olympia departs, we discover that Elmira is distressed because she believes her cold behaviour towards Erwin, her lowly born suitor, has caused him to disappear. Bernardo, Elmire's French instructor and mentor, overhears her self-reproaches and is able to persuade her to meet an old hermit in a secluded valley. There, he promises, she will find joy in her heart once more.The Second Act opens with Erwin in his hideaway hut in the country. Bernardo arrives and announces that that Elmire will shortly visit him unaware of his true identity. He disguises Erwin as a hermit. When Elmire arrives, she proceeds to make confession, admitting to having driven her lover to despair by feigning indifference in deference to social propriety. Erwin, convinced at last that Elmire really loves him, reveals his true identity to the delight of all concerned.
Musical numbers
| No. | Title | Cast |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Overture Overture Overture in music is the term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera... |
|
| 1a | Geängstet | Elmire |
| 2 | Liebes Kind, was hast du wieder? | Olympia |
| 3 | Was sind all die Seligkeiten | Elmire |
| 4 | Ihr solltet genießen | Olympia |
| 5 | Erwin, o schau! | Elmire |
| 6 | Hin ist hin | Bernardo |
| 7 | Ein Veilchen auf der Wiese stand | Elmire |
| 8 | Ich muß ihn sehen | Elmire, Bernardo (duet) |
| 9 | Ein Schauspiel für Götter | Bernardo |
| 10 | Entr'acte Entr'acte ' is French for "between the acts" . It can mean a pause between two parts of a stage production, synonymous to an intermission, but it more often indicates a piece of music performed between acts of a theatrical production... |
|
| 11 | Ihr verblühet, süße Rosen | Erwin |
| 12 | Inneres Wühlen | Erwin |
| 13 | Sie scheinen zu spielen | Bernardo |
| 14 | Sein ganzes Herz dahinzugeben | Erwin, Bernardo (duet) |
| 15 | Mit vollen Atemzügen | Elmire |
| 16 | Sieh mich, Heilger, wie ich bin | Elmire |
| 17 | Ha, sie liebt mich! | Erwin, Bernardo (duet) |
| 18 | Er ist nicht weit | Erwin, Elmire, Bernardo (trio) |
| 19 | Vergib mir die Eile | Erwin and Elmire (duet) |
| 20 | Finale: Vom Himmel gegeben | Erwin, Elmire, Bernardo, Olympia (quartet) |
Manuscript and score
A facsimile of the manuscript score is held by the Anna Amalia Bibliothek in Weimar (Mus II a : 98)—thankfully the original survived the catastrophic fire in 2004, though the original orchestral parts did not. Max Friedlaender (1852-1934) produced a heavily edited vocal score of Anna Amalia’s Erwin and Elmire in 1921. A performing edition of the work was published by Furore Verlag in Germany in 2008.Other settings of Goethe's text
An earlier setting of the text, also entitled Erwin und ElmireErwin und Elmire (André)
Erwin und Elmire is a singspiel, described as a Schauspiel mit Gesang, in two acts by the German composer Johann André, with a libretto by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, after Oliver Goldsmith's ballad of Angelica and Edwin, The Hermit, in chapter 8 of his sentimental novel The Vicar of...
, was made by Johann André
Johann André
Johann André was a German musician, composer and music publisher.In 1774, as the patriarch of a Huguenot family, André founded one of the first music publishing houses to be independent of a bookshop, in Offenbach am Main...
and first performed in May 1775 in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
. After Anna Amalia’s, several more settings were to follow, including ones by Carl David Stegmann
Carl David Stegmann
Carl David Stegmann was a German tenor, harpsichordist, conductor, and composer.He was born in Staucha near Meissen, the son of Johann Ehrenfried Stegmann and Anna Christiana Bretzner, and married Karoline Johanna Eleanore Linz producing two sons and four daughters...
(Hamburg, 1776), Ernst Wilhelm Wolf
Ernst Wilhelm Wolf
Ernst Wilhelm Wolf was a German composer.-Life:Wolf was born in Grossen Behringen in Thuringia, today part of the Hörselberg-Hainich municipality. His elder brother Ernst Friedrich was a composer and organist who studied under Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel...
(Weimar, 1785) and Karl Christian Agthe
Karl Christian Agthe
Karl Christian Agthe was a German organist and composer.Born in Hettstedt, Agthe served as court organist to Frederick Albrecht, Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg. Among his compositions are six Singspiele, a ballet, and piano sonatas. He died in Ballenstedt; a son, Albrecht Agthe, was a music...
(Ballenstedt, 1785). The most recent was by the Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck
Othmar Schoeck
Othmar Schoeck was a Swiss composer and conductor.He was known mainly for his considerable output of art songs and song cycles, though he also wrote a number of operas and instrumental compositions including two string quartets and...
(1886–1957) which premiered in 1915.
Goethe revised the libretto in 1787/88 while touring in Italy, introducing a secondary pair of lovers into the tale, and adpating the spoken dialogue into recitative. This version was set by Johann Friedrich Reichardt
Johann Friedrich Reichardt
Johann Friedrich Reichardt was a German composer, writer and music critic.-Early life:Reichardt was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, to lutenist and Stadtmusiker Johann Reichardt . Johann Friedrich began his musical training, in violin, keyboard, and lute, as a child...
and received its premiere in Berlin in early 1793.
The Romanze "Ein Veilchen
Das Veilchen
"Das Veilchen" , K. 476, is a song for voice and piano by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, written in Vienna on 8 June 1785, to a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.-Lyrics:Goethe wrote the poem in 1773 or early 1774...
" from Erwin und Elmire was the only setting of Goethe's text made by Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, his song K. 476 (1785). The story eventually became the subject of satire: in Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
’s operetta Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its...
(1875), the two lovers (here Edwin and Angelina) become the principal parties to a divorce case.