...by which I mean the broad German operatic tradition between, say, 1850 and 1880, but leaving Wagner out of the picture. I can think of operas such as Der Cid (Cornelius - 1865), Die Königin von Saba (Goldmark - 1875), Ekkehard (Abert - 1878) and Robin Hood (Dietrich - 1879). So can friends please think of any others (not comedies or operettas, please!) - especially if they have been recorded?
Flotow wrote quite a few in that period, none recorded to my knowledge in more than excerpts. Franz von Holstein had an opera ''Die Hochländer'' Op.36 premiered in 1876 on the Mannheim stage to his own libretto (I don't think it's recorded either.) Other examples too (e.g. Wuerst's Vineta, performed/premiered? 1862 though in Bratislava, to the composer's own libretto after a text by Gerstäcker), Klughardt's Iwein (1877-78) (a Worldcat search for Klughardt Iwein pulls up only one LP, in which someone with the name Iwein is a performer in Klughardt's wind quintet. Ah well. One tries...) (do we mean opera by German composers or opera premiered on German stages (admittedly, "German" only started taking on a definite definition later in the 1850-1880 period anyway, at least politically), or something else? apologies for asking about what are to others well-known definitions.)
(And at least selections of Flotow's (1852?) Indra have been recorded. Hrm. Though I guess nothing near the whole thing?)
Three more names to add to Eric's suggestions:
Heinrich Hofmann wrote at least five operas: Cartouche (1869), Armin (1877), Ännchen von Tharau (1878), Wilhelm von Oranien (1882) and Donna Diana (1886).
Three of Joachim Raff's operas were dramas: König Alfred (1848-52), Samson (1853-57) and Benedetto Marcello (1877-78).
Eduard Lassen (nominally a Dane brought up in Belgium, but effectively a German composer) wrote three: Landgraf Ludwig's Brautfahrt (1857), Frauenlob (1861), and Le Captif (1868).
There must be many others.
Well, if (Austro-Hungarian?) Goldmark is allowed I imagine Lassen can be :)
Hrm. Operone.de is still down, but looking at another site (Stanford's opera site) I see e.g. that Bruch's 3 operas were all premiered in this period... (Scherz, List und Rache (this one recorded in full or at least mostly??- however this may be a comic opera and therefore fall under "rule 1" above. :( ah well...); die Loreley; Hermione). Likewise 4 early operas by Brüll--
Die Bettler von Samarkand (1864 Wien)
Das goldene Kreuz (22.12.1875 Berlin) - this the only one I've really heard of. (Some excerpts and maybe the overture recorded?)
Der Landfriede (4.10.1877 Wien)
Bianca (25.11.1879 Dresden)
And these by August Conradi, a name familiar I think to Liszt fans...
Die Braut des Flussgottes (1850 Berlin)
Musa, der letzte Maurenfürst (1855 Berlin)
Die Sixtinische Madonna (1864 Berlin)
Knecht Ruprecht (1865 Berlin)
Im Weinberge des Herrn (1867 Berlin)
Das schönste Mädchen im Städtchen (1868 Berlin)
Though again all obscure and unperformed-in-the-modern-era to the best of my very limited knowledge.
There's my own favourite: Goetz Taming of the Shrew ( c.1874)... but I suppose that this counts as a comedy.. but, then again, so does Donna Diana.
Hrm. Don't know the plot of "Ruy Blas" well enough to say, but maybe Max Zenger's 1868 (premiered in Mannheim, don't know date of composition- libretto has been scanned in by the Munich library, etc.) 4-act "Grosse Oper" of that name also counts?
Thanks for all these suggestions.
Zemlinsky's "The Dwarf" is pretty superb.
...but it doesn't fall within the 1850-1880 period which this thread is concerned with.
Goldmark's Merlin is quite good, but just a little outside the timeline, as it premiered in 1886
Wex
This tends to prove that Wagner so overshadowed German operatic culture that little else flourished.
Schumann's Genoveva is 1850.
Of the operas mentioned already, the only ones I've heard are Der Cid, Die Königin von Saba, and Bruch's Lorelei. The last, by a composer I much admire, struck me as disappointing, with music that could often date from the 1820's and little sense of music theatre: there's an irrelevant drinking scene which contrasts very unfavourably with the comparable and heavily ironic scene in Marschner's Vampyr. The other two have strengths, and Wagner admired parts of Die Königin von Saba. I've looked at the VS of Hofmann's Armin in the British Library, and agree with Wagner's assessment of its emptiness. Other operas for which he had little time are Kretschmer's Die Folkunger (1874), whose vocal score I've just discovered to be available online, and Theodor Körner by his erstwhile friend, Wendelin Weissheimer (1872). I don't know whether it is comic or serious. Marschner's romantic operas Austin and Der Sangeskönig Hiarne are both post-1850. I don't know any Marschner work after Hans Heiling, but there seems to be general agreement that he went into steep decline.
All in all, my favourite operas from this period are two I'm not allowed to mention: The Taming of the Shrew and The Barber of Baghdad.
Just missing this time-frame is Lortzing's Regina (1848), which I ought to have heard but haven't. I see that it will be broadcast next month on Radio Stephansdom.
A postscript, which really scrapes the barrel: Lindpaintner's Giulia oder die Corsen (August Lewald), Oper 4 Akte op. 446 (1851/52; 20. Nov. 1853).
More: Hiller, Die Katakomben (1862).
Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm sure there are many more, but it doesn't sound like there are many neglected important operas.
Cornelius' Der Cid is, of course, basically Lohengrin without the tunes. Personally, I think The Queen of Sheba is the best of the lot, with Ekkehard a decent runner-up.
I wonder if one might also count Anton Rubinstein's Die Maccabäer, premièred in Berlin in 1875, with libretto by the ubiquitous Salomon Hermann Mosenthal, who also wrote the libretti for Die Folkunger and Die Königin von Saba (and Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor). Concerning this opera, Tchaikovsky wrote to his brother Modest: 'Tell Anton Rubinstein "My brother has instructed me to tell you that you are a son of a bitch, and you can go and stuff your mother"'.
In her diary, Cosima Wagner wrote: 'the elegant world of Berlin was cheering Anton Rubinstein's opera Die Maccabäer' and 'a curious impression of this opera—it definitely seems that one can nowadays only make an effect if one writes in the Wagnerian style'. (According to Wikipedia, by contrast, Hanslick saw in Die Maccabäer an alternative to the Wagnerian style).
A few weeks later, Wagner ' takes up La Juive, pleasure in the great style of this work—a quite different use of Jewish sounds from that in present day Jewish operas (Die Maccabäer, Die Königin von Saba)'.
Incidentally, these exchanges, and Wagner's other, more positive, reactions to Die Königin von Saba, show that his attitude to Jewish composers could at times be quite nuanced. And, although he obviously had very mixed feelings about Die Maccabäer, he praises Rubinstein's songs in Mein Leben. Mosenthal called on the Wagners in Vienna in March 1875, though after a performance of Die Königin von Saba Cosima's reaction was cruder than Wagner's: 'no gold, no marks, but plenty of Mosenthal'.
Does anyone know Die Maccabäer?
Quote from: Derek Hughes on Saturday 12 October 2013, 08:02
Does anyone know Die Maccabäer?
That's intriguing - especially as I tend to locate Rubinstein in the broad German tradition as much as in the Russian...
It would be great if it (or any of Rubinstein's operas besides Dmitry Donskoy) has an overture that could be used in the concert hall. Sometimes such curtain raisers in the concert hall eventually pique interest in the work itself.
Donskoy doesn't "have" an overture, anyway, anymore- as the rest of its material is lost or destroyed, it is its overture...
(When we talked about this in March, I could only find that his Christus and Néron had extended, though not really exactly separate/played-separately, preludes, I think.)
Well, if they take an extended period of time, and come to discrete cadences before the curtain rises, you could probably use them as concert overtures.