Theodor Körner (opera)

Last updated
Theodor Körner
Opera by Wendelin Weißheimer
Portrait Theodor Korner (c1830).jpg
The opera's protagonist, German poet and soldier Theodor Körner
Librettist Louise Otto-Peters
Premiere1872 (1872)
Hoftheater in Munich

Leyer und Schwert (Lyre and Sword) (modern German spelling Leier und Schwert) is a patriotic opera in five acts composed by Wendelin Weißheimer to a libretto by Louise Otto-Peters. Also known as Theodor Körner, the opera was composed in 1863/64 and premiered in Munich in 1872. The libretto is based on an episode in the life of the German poet and soldier Theodor Körner.

Wendelin Weißheimer composer

Wendelin Weißheimer was a 19th-century German composer, conductor, essayist, teacher and music writer. He studied with Franz Liszt and was in close contact with Richard Wagner, Hans von Bülow, Peter Cornelius, Louise Otto-Peters, Ferdinand Lassalle, August Bebel and many other notable musicians.

Louise Otto-Peters 19th-century German feminist, poet, and writer

Louise Otto-Peters was a German suffragist and women's rights movement activist who wrote novels, poetry, essays, and libretti. She wrote for Der Wandelstern [The Wandering Star] and Sächsische Vaterlandsblätter [Saxon Fatherland Pages], and founded Frauen-Zeitung and Neue Bahnen specifically for women. She is widely acknowledged as the founder of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein [General German Women's Association].

Theodor Körner (author) German poet

Carl Theodor Körner was a German poet and soldier. After some time in Vienna, where he wrote some light comedies and other works for the Burgtheater, he became a soldier and joined the Lützow Free Corps in the German uprising against Napoleon. During these times, he displayed personal courage in many fights, and encouraged his comrades by fiery patriotic lyrics he composed, among these being the "Schwertlied", composed during a lull in fighting only a few hours before his death, and "Lützows wilde Jagd", each set to music by both Carl Maria von Weber and Franz Schubert. He was often called the "German Tyrtaeus."

Contents

History

Original notes from Weissheimer's Theodor Korner Theodor Koerner Opernpartitur.JPG
Original notes from Weißheimer's Theodor Körner

The libretto was written by Louise Otto-Peters, who had already shown ardent interest in patriotic subjects as a youth. [1] It depicts the last episode of Theodor Körner's life from the beginning of his military engagement until his death. Körner, a famous German poet during the Wars of Liberation against Napoleonic hegemony, was free of personal worries due to his professional success culminating in the appointment as k. k. Hoftheaterdichter, [2] a playwright of the imperial court at the Burgtheater in Vienna. He nonetheless voluntarily joined the famous Lützow Free Corps as he wanted to deliver Germany from French dominance, writing to his father: "Yes, my dearest father, I want to become a soldier. I want to give up the newly acquired happy and carefree live joyously in order to fight for my fatherland, even if I have to spill my blood. […] No one is too valuable for the death for the liberty and the honour of his nation, but many are not valuable enough." [3] [4] In 19th-century Germany, Körner hence became a national hero. [5]

War of the Sixth Coalition Part of the Napoleonic Wars

In the War of the Sixth Coalition, sometimes known in Germany as the War of Liberation, a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and a number of German States defeated France and drove Napoleon into exile on Elba. After the disastrous French invasion of Russia of 1812, the continental powers joined Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal and the rebels in Spain who were already at war with France.

First French Empire Empire of Napoleon I of France between 1804-1815

The First French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the empire of Napoleon Bonaparte of France and the dominant power in much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. Although France had already established an overseas colonial empire beginning in the 17th century, the French state had remained a kingdom under the Bourbons and a republic after the Revolution. Historians refer to Napoleon's regime as the First Empire to distinguish it from the restorationist Second Empire (1852-1870) ruled by his nephew as Napoleon III.

A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.

Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner spoke appreciatively of this work. Ferdinand Lassalle, who had particularly liked the libretto and was equally enthusiastic about the music, had offered to write Weißheimer a textbook on Florian Geyer, Thomas Munzer or the Bohemian Jan Žižka, but his death put an end to this idea. [6] Wagner had written for Weißheimer a draft for the opera, Wieland the Blacksmith, but gave it back before scoring it. [7] For the premiere of Theodor Körner at the Berlin Court Opera, Liszt began with the former artistic director Count von Redern. However, Count von Redern recommended Liszt to run the premiere on a different stage because Prince Louis Ferdinand was to play a role which would affect the Prussian royal family too strongly. For the premiere to be accommodated elsewhere it would be important to gain Wagner's support, for whom Wendelin had fought for many years. But Wagner was too immersed in his own work to be of any help. Weißheimer's negotiations with Munich moved very slowly but in 1872, his opera was finally premiered there. [8]

Franz Liszt Hungarian romantic composer and virtuoso pianist

Franz Liszt was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, music teacher, arranger and organist of the Romantic era. He was also a writer, a philanthropist, a Hungarian nationalist and a Franciscan tertiary.

Richard Wagner German composer

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Ferdinand Lassalle German jurist, socialist

Ferdinand Lassalle, born as Ferdinand Johann Gottlieb Lassal was a Prussian-German jurist, philosopher, socialist, and political activist. Lassalle is best remembered as the initiator of national-style socialism in Germany. He coined the terms "night-watchman state" and "iron law of wages".

Scoring and structure

Leyer und Schwert is an opera in five acts and a prelude:

Prelude

„Deutschland muss siegen oder untergeh’n.“ —
"Germany must be victorious or cease to exist."

Three citizens talk about the current state of French-occupied Germany. As one of them starts to talk about liberation from foreign yoke, the others burst into fear. Subsequently, Major von Lützow appears, surrounded by a large crowd, reading a declaration by the king of Prussia that incites all citizens to enlist. Körner, one of the people encircling the major, starts to publicly support the appeal to deliver Germany from its enemies. Recognised by one of the three citizens from the beginning of the scene, Körner frenetically exalts liberty and joins the Freikorps.

Germany Federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe

Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Seas to the north, and the Alps to the south. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, and Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands to the west.

Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow Prussian lieutenant-general

Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm Freiherr von Lützow was a Prussian lieutenant general notable for his organization and command of the Lützow Freikorps of volunteers during the Napoleonic Wars.

Act 1

„Mich ruft die Pflicht, mich ruft das Vaterland. / […] Wenn sich das Volk erhebt, / So nehm auch ich das Schwert in meine Hand!“ —
"Duty calls me, and the fatherland. / […] When the people starts to fight, / I will draw the sword as well!"

Toni, Körner's betrothed, awaits her fiancé who appears only to inform her that he must leave in order to fight for the liberation of Germany. In spite of her own patriotism, Toni tries to convince Körner that he can also be a benefit to the fatherland in his role as a poet: „Diene der Kunst, du dienst der deutschen Sache.“ ("Serve art, and you serve Germany.") In the third scene of this act, several public officers appear and inform Theodor of his appointment as poet of the court in Vienna, thus providing new hope for Toni, but Körner finally decides that German art can only flourish if the German nation does, and this must be ensured by the sword. After several farewell kisses, he leaves.

Vienna Capital city and state in Austria

Vienna is the federal capital and largest city of Austria, and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primate city, with a population of about 1.9 million, and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Until the beginning of the 20th century, it was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today, it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger.

Act 2

"Hier kümmert niemand Rang und Stand: / Wir denken nur ans Vaterland." —
"Here, no one cares for your rank or class: / We only think of the fatherland."

The second act opens in a recruitment office where Elise von Ahlefeld-Lützow and Friedrich Friesen as well as two volunteers are present. Körner arrives and looks for Lützow, who appears in the second scene, accompanied by many of his soldiers, and immediately recognises him. Both attend a church service where the priest commits the members of the Freikorps to the cause. The scene and thereby the act end with a rendition of Luther's chorale "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("A Mighty Fortress Is Our God").

Friedrich Friesen German gymnast

Karl Friedrich Friesen was a German gymnast and soldier, one of the principal promoters of gymnastics in Germany.

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God hymn by Martin Luther

"A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" is one of the best known hymns by the reformer Martin Luther, a prolific hymnodist. Luther wrote the words and composed the melody sometime between 1527 and 1529. It has been translated into English at least seventy times and also into many other languages. The words are a paraphrase of Psalm 46.

Act 3

„Es kommt die Zeit zur guten Sache, / Zur Freiheit, zum Tyrannentod.“ —
"The time for our good cause will come, / For liberty and tyrant's death."

In a forest near Leipzig, Lützow's cavalry roams the area, looking for enemies to fight. The disappointment of the soldiers who in vain seek battle is aggrandized when they learn that a truce has been concluded. Lützow and his men reject it because they think that endless negotiations will be to the disadvantage of Germany. In lieu of debating, the war should be brought to an end by arms. Suddenly, however, the enemy attacks, thus breaking the armistice. Körner is wounded and hides himself so that no one finds him. Two civilians, Häusser and a farmer, have seen the skirmish and trace Körner's hideout back. Undetected by the French, they bring him to Häusser's house.

Act 4

„Der deutschen Frauen Opfermut / Errettet mir das Vaterland.“ —
"The courage of German women / Saves the fatherland."

There, Häusser's wife Johanna takes care of the unconscious soldier. When Körner awakes, he learns what has happened and thanks Johanna for her help. She replies that everyone would have saved such a hero who so valiantly fought for the fatherland. Indeed, Körner is already that famous that Häusser is accompanied by several farmers in the second scene who only wish to see the wounded warrior. As he feels well enough again, Körner, Johanna and Häusser make a plan for his escape. Häusser insinuates that he has friends in Leipzig who would be willing to support the hero if they were informed in advance. Johanna volunteers to smuggle a letter into the city, thus instruction Häusser's friend. After having praised the courage of German women, Körner leaves for Leipzig.

Act 5

„Weh! Er ist tot, der Edelste von allen!“ —
"Alack! He is dead, the most noble of them all!"

Körner meets Lützow, Friesen and Elise again. Their joyous reunion is disrupted when they are informed that the enemy is approaching. During the following dialogue between him and Elise, Körner divines his forthcoming death and finally sets off to fight. The battle is won, but Körner's foreboding was right: His dead body is carried by several soldiers. Bemoaning the loss of his friend, Lützow orders his Freikorps to leave for battle and venge the death of their hero.

Current situation

The score only exists in Weißheimer's handwriting. In 2013, some parts of it were transliterated by order of the Louise-Otto-Peters-Gesellschaft. These excerpts were performed in a version for piano in cooperation with the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig, and recorded. [9] Due to financial reasons, a full transliteration of the score and a performance of the entire opera are currently not envisaged.

Related Research Articles

Wilhelm Heinrich Ackermann was a German teacher.

Lützow Free Corps Prussian volunteer force during the Napoleonic wars commanded by Ludwig von Lützow

Lützow Free Corps was a volunteer force of the Prussian army during the Napoleonic Wars. It was named after its commander, Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow. The Corpsmen were also widely known as the “Lützower Jäger“ or “Schwarze Jäger“, sometimes also "Lützower Reiter".

Composition of <i>Der Ring des Nibelungen</i>

The evolution of Richard Wagner's operatic tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen was a long and tortuous process, and the precise sequence of events which led the composer to embark upon such a vast undertaking is still unclear. The composition of the text took place between 1848 and 1853, when all four libretti were privately printed; but the closing scene of the final opera, Götterdämmerung, was revised a number of times between 1856 and 1872. The names of the last two Ring operas, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, were probably not definitively settled until 1856.

Franz Brendel German music critic

Karl Franz Brendel was a German music critic, journalist and musicologist born in Stolberg, the son of a successful mining engineer named Christian Friedrich Brendel.

Christian Louis Heinrich Köhler was a German composer, conductor and piano teacher.

Otto Neitzel German composer

Otto Neitzel, Prof., Dr. phil., born in Falkenburg, Farther Pomerania, died in Cologne. As a composer and pianist, music writer, journalist and lecturer he represents the German piano group of the 19th century.

Eleonore Prochaska Female Prussian soilder

Marie Christiane Eleonore Prochaska was a German woman soldier who fought in the Prussian army against Napoleon during the War of the Sixth Coalition.

Hans Sommer (composer) German composer

Hans Sommer was a German composer and mathematician.

Alfred is a heroic opera in three acts by the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. It was Dvořák's first opera and the only one he composed to a German text. The libretto, by Carl Theodor Körner, was set by Friedrich von Flotow, based on the story of the English king Alfred the Great. Composed in 1870, Alfred was not performed during Dvořák's lifetime. The opera premiered at the City Theatre, Olomouc on 10 December 1938.

Theodor Hell German writer

Theodor Hell was the pseudonym of Karl Gottfried Theodor Winkler, a court councillor (Hofrath) in Dresden from 1824, who was the centre of literary life through his work as editor, translator and critic. He was the theatrical secretary from 1815.

Emma Körner German artist

Emma Sophie Körner was a German painter, a pupil of the Swiss painter Anton Graff, and sister of the poet and soldier Carl Theodor Körner.

Johann Weißheimer II German politician

Johann Weißheimer II was the father of the composer Wendelin Weißheimer. Around the middle of the 19th century, he was one of the most heavily taxed landowners in Rheinhessen. He was also a politician and mayor of Osthofen in the first chamber stalls of the Hesse state parliament during the 1848 revolution.

Lützow’s Wild Hunt is the title of a patriotic German song and a 1927 German silent war film.

Lyre and Sword is a collection of patriotic poetry by Theodor Körner (1791-1813), which first appeared posthumously in 1814, consisting mostly of poems from the last year of his life. The poet had taken part in the German War of Liberation as a lieutenant in the Lützow Free Corps and fell on August 26, 1813 near Gadebusch. The poems, some of them based on German folk-tunes, were originally sung to the guitar or recited by the poet to his fellow soldiers.

Schwertlied poem written by Theodor Körner

"Schwertlied" is a poem by Theodor Körner, written shortly before his death in battle on 26 August 1813.

<i>An allem ist Hütchen schuld!</i> Opera by Siegfried Wagner

An allem ist Hütchen schuld!, Op. 11, is an opera in German in three acts composed by Siegfried Wagner in 1914/15 to his own libretto. It is described as a Märchenspiel or fairy-tale play. It premiered on 6 December 1917 at the court theatre in Stuttgart.

Elisa von Ahlefeldt German salon-holder

Elisa Davidia Margarethe Countess of Ahlefeldt was a German-Danish noblewoman and wife of the Prussian General-major and war hero Adolf von Lützow.

References

  1. ↑ Louise Otto-Peters. Ihr literarisches und publizistisches Werk. Leipziger Universitätsverlag: Leipzig, 1995. Page 92.
  2. ↑ Sundermann, Peter. 100 berühmte Sachsen. Sutton-Verlag: Erfurt, 2010. Page 57.
  3. ↑ Krebs, Gilbert. Bernhard Poloni (ed.). Volk, Reich und Nation. 1806 – 1918. Texte zur Einheit Deutschlands in Staat, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Page 26.
  4. ↑ The original German text is: Ja, liebster Vater, ich will Soldat werden. Ich will das hier gewonnene glückliche und sorgenfreie Leben mit Freuden hinwerfen, um, sei’s auch mit meinem Blute, mir mein Vaterland zu erkämpfen. […] Zum Opfertode für die Freiheit und für die Ehre der Nation ist keiner zu gut, wohl aber sind viele zu schlecht dazu!
  5. ↑ Brandt, Bettina. Germania und ihre Söhne: Repräsentationen von Nation, Geschlecht und Politik in der Moderne. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht: Göttingen, 2010. Page 120.
  6. ↑ Weißheimer, Wendelin. Erlebnisse mit Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt und vielen anderen Zeitgenossen: nebst deren Briefen. Stuttgart, 1898. Page 302.
  7. ↑ Glasenapp, Carl Friedrich. Richard Wagners Leben und Wirken.
  8. ↑ Louise Otto-Peters. Ihr literarisches und publizistisches Werk. Leipziger Universitätsverlag: Leipzig, 1995. Page 124.
  9. ↑ Programme of the evening.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.