The Origin and Performance History of Carl Maria von

Transcrição

Florida State University Libraries
Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations
The Graduate School
2005
The Origin and Performance History of
Carl Maria Von Weber's Das Waldmädchen
(1800)
Bama Lutes Deal
Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected]
THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF MUSIC
THE ORIGIN AND PERFORMANCE HISTORY OF
CARL MARIA VON WEBER’S DAS WALDMÄDCHEN (1800)
By
BAMA LUTES DEAL
A Dissertation submitted to the
College of Music
in partial fulfillment of the
Requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Degree Awarded:
Spring Semester, 2005
Copyright © 2005
Bama Lutes Deal
All Rights Reserved
The members of the committee approve the dissertation of Bama Lutes Deal defended
on 1 April 2005.
___________________________________
Douglass Seaton
Professor Directing Dissertation
___________________________________
Douglas Fisher
Outside Committee Member
___________________________________
Charles Brewer
Committee Member
___________________________________
Jeffery Kite-Powell
Committee Member
The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named
committee members.
ii
To my parents
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful for the education and encouragement I received from the faculty
and administration of The Florida State University College of Music, and for the love,
patience, and support of my dear family, colleagues, and friends. Collectively, their
words and deeds contributed greatly to this document and helped me grow as a scholar
and a musician.
I thank my dissertation advisor, Douglass Seaton, for his uncompromising
principles and many examples of scholarly work. I have benefited from his insistence
on carefully organized writing and clear logic. The members of my committee also
provided thorough editorial guidance as I prepared this document. They include
Charles Brewer and Douglas Fisher, who served on my committee from its inception,
and Jeffery Kite-Powell, who replaced Denise Von Glahn when a scheduling conflict
prevented her from reading the final versions of my work. I could not have hoped for a
finer group of teachers. I am also grateful to my alma mater for supporting my work
with a Dissertation Research Grant in 2003-04.
Frank Heidlberger informed me during the early stages of my work that a score
to Weber’s Das Waldmädchen had been found in St. Petersburg. I have benefited from his
continued interest in this investigation of Weber’s early experiences with Steinsberg and
his colleagues from Prague. Many other exceptional scholars helped me while I was in
Prague and Vienna.
For his gracious hospitality and friendship, I thank David Beveridge. Through
him I met Adolf Scherl, Alena Jakubcová, and Jitka Ludvova at Prague’s Divadelní
ústav. This state-run institute, dedicated to preserving and sharing Czech theater
history, became my home away from home. Drs. Jakubcová and Ludvova
iv
shared with me the well-organized historical and bibliographic resources of the institute,
providing me with a comfortable work space and expert guidance, all of which
contributed immeasurably to the success of my research. Dr. Scherl also directed certain
aspects of this investigation, generously sharing his personal notes and detailed
knowledge of Czech archival sources.
I thank the administration and staff of the National Library of the Czech
Republic, the Archives of the Capital City of Prague, the National Theater Archive, the
State Regional Archive at Prague, and the National Museum of the Czech Republic. My
appreciation is also extended to Markéta Kabelková and Vlasta Koubská for their
assistance with the collections of the Czech Museum of Music and the Department of
Theater Studies of the National Museum of the Czech Republic, respectively.
I am similarly indebted to the staff of the library at the Österreichiches
Theatermuseum and the Musiksammlung of the Österreichiches Nationalbibliothek for
their efficient, professional, and courteous assistance. David Buch provided helpful
directions, contacts, and scheduling information during a too-brief visit to Vienna. For
the comfort of family, I also thank Marylin and Roger Stone—what a happy coincidence
that our paths crossed so far from home!
Stuart Burnham gave me generous practical advice about traveling and
conducting musicological research in the Czech Republic. He also put me in touch with
Luboš and Helena Weiser, the couple who allowed me to live in their beautiful home for
many weeks. Their countless acts of kindness remain my fondest memories of Prague.
Ivan Sury was equally friendly and helpful during my stay, for which I am most
grateful.
I thank the many fine scholars in North Carolina who assisted and encouraged
my research, especially Sarah Dorsey, Ted Hunter, and Doryl Jensen. Sweet Sarah,
thank you for everything—you are the finest kind of music librarian! My gratitude also
extends to Eleanor McCrickard, Carol Marsh, David Levy, Elizabeth Keathley, David
Nelson, Aubrey Garlington, Jane Perry-Camp, and Susan Andreatta, each of whom took
v
an interest in my work, offering ideas, advice, and generous encouragement along the
way.
To Helga and Jeff, I extend my heartfelt appreciation for their friendship and
balanced approach to life. It has been invigorating to share good times with them and
then get right back to work.
I am most grateful for the daily contributions of my family, whose love provided
my most important source of strength and determination. For the quiet sacrifices they
withstood, and for their ongoing faithfulness, I thank my children Ashleigh and Justin.
I also thank my mother and father, to whom this work is dedicated. Their gift of music
lessons set me on this path long ago. Dad’s soaring spirit gave me courage to finish my
work—and I know he was watching me while I was in Europe. Mom became my most
important pen-pal during an otherwise solitary time, reminding me that family matters
most in life. I am also grateful to the members of my extended family, including inlaws, sisters, brothers, aunts, and uncles, each of whom helped me in many different
ways as I pursued this goal.
My life has been graced by the comfort and love of a very special man, m y
husband John, who listened attentively to my ideas, read through and edited early
drafts, accommodated m e with the time and space necessary to think and write, funded
my travels, prepared meals, patiently took up hobbies, and was always near to lift my
spirit whenever I felt down. I will always be grateful for his love, patience,
encouragement, and understanding.
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables
List of Figures
List of Examples
Abstract
ix
xi
xii
xiv
INTRODUCTION
1
1. CARL MARIA VON WEBER’S MUSICAL INFLUENCES, 1786–1800
9
2. FERAL CHILDREN AND WRANITZKY’S PANTOMIME-BALLET
DAS WALDMÄDCHEN (1796)
24
3. STEINSBERG AND HIS COMPANY
46
Steinsberg
Prague’s vaterländische Gesellschaft
Steinsberg and the vaterländische Gesellschaft Leave Prague
The Freiberg (Saxony) Residency, August–November, 1800
4. WEBER’S DAS WALDMÄDCHEN (1800)
46
53
58
67
73
Performances of Weber’s Early Opera
73
Weber’s Continued Interest in Das Waldmädchen
82
5. HYPOTHETICAL SYNOPSIS OF WEBER’S DAS WALDMÄDCHEN (1800)
Act 1
Act 2
86
90
92
vii
6. PRIMARY SOURCES FOR WEBER’S DAS WALDMÄDCHEN (1800)
Score Fragments, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin,
Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Weberiana I:1
The St. Petersburg Score and Orchestra Parts,
Gosudarstvenny akademichesky Mariinsky teatr Central'naya
muzykalnaya biblioteka, RF-Sprob, Sign. I.1.W.373
Wranitzky’s Ballet and Weber’s Opera: Comparing Scores
7. THE CHEMNITZ CAST AND THE PERFORMANCE AT PRAGUE
The Chemnitz Cast
A Performance at Prague in Czech
94
97
101
120
131
131
137
SUMMARY
141
APPENDIX A
153
APPENDIX B
163
BIBLIOGRAPHY
173
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
196
viii
LIST OF TABLES
1.1 Partial Repertoire of the Weber Theater Company, 1787–96
13
1.2 Weber’s Compositions Prior to August 1800
18
2.1 Selected Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century Published Accounts of
Feral Children
26
2.2 Music from Wranitzky’s Das Waldmädchen in the Catalogue of
the Czech Museum of Music
43
3.1 Partial List of Karl Ritter von Steinsberg’s Works
51
3.2 Personnel of the vaterländische Gesellschaft, 1791
57
3.3 Personnel of the United vaterländische Gesellschaft and the Karlsbad Company
Following Stentzsch’s Tour, 1797
60
3.4 Personnel of Steinsberg’s Touring Company at Prague and Carlsbad, Summer
1798
62
3.5 Repertoire Presented by Steinsberg’s Company at Freiberg (Saxony),
24 August to 25 November 1800
68
4.1 Reported Performances of Weber’s Das Waldmädchen (J. Anh. 1)
81
4.2 Weber’s Music for the Stage
84
5.1 Dramatis personae in Das Waldmädchen (1800)
87
6.1 Arrangement, Pagination, and Paper Types in Volume 1 of the
St. Petersburg score to Das Waldmädchen (RF-Sprob, Sign. I.1.W.373)
104
6.2 Arrangement, Pagination and Paper Types in Volume 2 of the
106
ix
6.3 Organization of Musical Numbers in Wranitzky’s Ballet
Das Waldmädchen (1796)
121
6.4 Organization of Musical Numbers in the St. Petersburg Score to
Weber’s Opera Das Waldmädchen (1800)
125
x
LIST OF FIGURES
4.1. Wenzel Müller’s diary entry for December 1804,
Stadts- und Landsbibliothek, Vienna, Tagebuch
über das Theater in Der Leopoldstadt (1781-1830), Sign. 51926 JB
77
4.2. Wenzel Müller’s diary entry for June 1805,
Stadts- und Landsbibliothek, Vienna, Tagebuch
über das Theater in Der Leopoldstadt (1781-1830), Sign. 51926 JB
78
xi
LIST OF EXAMPLES
6.1 Earlier and Revised Readings of the St. Petersburg Score to Weber’s
Das Waldmädchen, Act 2, No. 14 (Aria, Printz), Measure 99
109
6.2 Earlier and Revised Readings of the St. Petersburg Score to Weber’s
Das Waldmädchen, Act 2, No. 14 (Aria, Printz), Measures 156–58
110
6.3 Gubkina’s Incipits to the St. Petersburg Score of Weber’s Das Waldmädchen
Act 1
A.
Overtura
B.
No. 1, Introduction, Choro Jäger
113
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
K.
L.
No. 2, Aria, Krips
No. 3, Marcia
No. 4, Duetto, Printz, Krips
No. 5, Aria, Krips
No. 6, Printz, Chor der Jäger
No. 7, Aria, Arbander
No. 8, Aria, Kunigunde
No. 9, Quartetto, Mathilde, Kunigunde, Hertor, Wirlingo
No. 10, Duetto, Wirlingo, Krips
L. No. 11, Finale. Aria, Mathilde
113
114
114
114
115
115
115
116
116
116
117
Act 2
M.
N.
O.
P.
Q.
R.
S.
T.
No. 12, Duetto, Hertor, Wizlingo
No. 13, Zwischen Musik
No. 14, Aria, Printz
No. 15, Aria, Krips
No. 16, Recitativo con Aria, Mathilde
No. 17, Terzetto, Mathilde, Arbander, Krips
No. 18, Duetto, Krips, Kunigunde
No. 19, Marcia
117
117
118
118
118
119
119
119
xii
U.
V.
No. 20, Der Fakel-Tanz
No. 21, Schlußchor
120
120
xiii
ABSTRACT
This study traces the origin and performance history of Carl Maria von Weber’s
(1786–1826) early opera Das Waldmädchen (J. Anh. 1, 1800), establishing the composer’s
musical background and knowledge of popular German opera at the time of his
collaboration with librettist and theater company director Karl Franz Guolfinger, Ritter
von Steinsberg (c. 1757–1806). The opera is of particular interest as the composer’s first
professionally produced stage work, and also as the original version of his m ore mature
opera, Silvana (J. 87, 1808–10). It has received little scholarly attention until recently,
because the score was presumed lost.
In 2000, Natalia Gubkina’s discovery of a full score and a complete set of
orchestra parts to Das Waldmädchen, in the central library of the Mariinsky State Theater
in St. Petersburg, brought renewed scholarly interest to this unusual opera, which
Weber composed when he was only thirteen years old. Her discovery also verified a
statement by Weber, in his autobiographical sketch (1818), that Das Waldmädchen was
performed at St. Petersburg. In the past, important scholars regarded that assertion with
skepticism, questioning the accuracy and completeness of the autobiographical sketch
itself. In the same sketch, Weber also stated that Das Waldmädchen was performed at
Prague in Czech. The present study confirms Weber’s claim of a Czech performance at
Prague, further revealing that Steinsberg, Weber’s Czech-born librettist, was a former
director of the German company at Prague’s Nostitz Theater (Estates Theater). In light
of such findings, the previously perceived unreliability of Weber’s autobiographical
sketch must be reconsidered.
xii
The cultural context from which Weber’s opera emerged was complex and multifaceted. Steinsberg’s libretto to Das Waldmädchen was modeled after a popular Viennese
pantomime-ballet (Das Waldmädchen, 1796) by Moravian-born composer Paul Wranitzky.
Further, Wranitzky’s ballet was inspired by contemporary reports of feral children, a
topic that was of great interest to the general public, generating many books, journalistic
reports, and stage works featuring mute characters living in the wilderness. Several
musical and dramatic aspects of Weber’s opera score are compared to Wranitzky’s ballet
score, demonstrating the similarity of the plots of both works and also showing that
some of the conventions of Viennese pantomime-ballet are also found in Weber’s music
for the German opera stage.
Finally, this study follows the migration of the Waldmädchen story as a ballet and
later as an opera from Vienna to Prague and beyond, charting the movements of theatercompany personnel who were involved in various productions and revealing the
influence of otherwise obscure actors, dancers, and singers on the reception of Weber’s
early score. Weber’s Das Waldmädchen can now been studied within the broader context
of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century German theater.
xiii
INTRODUCTION
This study investigates Carl Maria von Weber’s (1786–1826) early opera Das
Waldmädchen (J. Anh. 1, 1800), establishing the composer’s musical background and
knowledge of popular German opera at the time of his collaboration with librettist and
theater company director Karl Franz Guolfinger, Ritter von Steinsberg (c. 1757–1806).1
Weber’s affiliation with Steinsberg has been generally acknowledged as an artistically
important experience in his development as a composer of German opera, primarily
because it culminated with his first professionally produced stage work, and also
because the score was completed when he was only thirteen years old. Beyond those
qualifiers, however, little else has been established.
Throughout this document Weber’s Das Waldmädchen (J. Anh. 1) will be
designated as an opera. Weber himself called it a “komische Oper.” In an extant
playbill from the second performance of Das Waldmädchen the stage work is described as
a “romantische-komische Oper.” Notably, both of these designations reflect the findings
of Thomas Bauman, i.e., “komische Oper” was the single most frequently used term
used to describe such works from 1767 to 1799. Thomas Bauman, North German Opera in
the Age of Goethe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 9–11. Hereafter,
Baumann. Although Baumann’s work focuses on northern German repertoire, Marissa
Anne Solomon St. Laurent correctly notes that Viennese practices during this same
period followed many of the northern German trends. Marissa Anne Solomon St.
Laurent, “The Life and Operatic Works of a ‘Divine Philistine’: Paul Wranitzky,” Ph.D.
dissertation (University of California, Los Angeles, 2000), 132, f. n. 24. Hereafter,
Solomon St. Laurent. As will be shown, late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century
Viennese theater practices, including designations of repertoire, were closely followed in
many parts of central and Eastern Europe, including Bohemia, Saxony, and elsewhere.
1
1
The absence of a complete score to Weber’s early opera, compounded by a lack
of information about Steinsberg’s career prior to 1800 and scant information about the
company members for whom the score was composed, made it difficult to assess more
precisely the significance of Weber’s early collaborative experience with the
considerably older author and theater company director. What has always been evident,
however, was that some aspect of Weber’s collaboration with Steinsberg held a special
significance, for Weber composed a second opera based on the same settings, characters,
and events of Das Waldmädchen several years later. The opera Silvana, (J. 87, c. 1808–
1810) is Weber’s second operatic version of the Waldmädchen story. Silvana was Weber’s
most frequently performed stage work until the premiere of Der Freischütz (J. 277) at
Berlin in 1821.
In addition to the lack of an explanation for Weber’s long-standing interest in the
Waldmädchen story as the basis for an opera, several other aspects of the WeberSteinsberg collaboration have long remained unclear. A review of the premiere of Das
Waldmädchen indicates that Weber’s music was not well received. However, the opera
was later produced at several notable venues. In December 1804, for example, a
substantially revised version of the opera, re-titled Das Mädchen aus Spessartwald, was
performed nine times at Vienna’s Leopoldstadt Theater under the direction of Wenzel
Müller, who may have composed the additional music needed to expand the opera into
three acts.2 Weber was living in Breslau at the time of the Viennese performances, and
there is no evidence that he had actively promoted his opera in that city. Consequently,
one wonders why Das Waldmädchen interested Müller. In an autobiographical sketch
written in 1818, Weber claimed that Das Waldmädchen had also been performed at St.
Weber’s opera is in two acts. However, an extant playbill from Müller’s
production indicates that the opera was presented in three acts at the Leopoldstadt
Theater. Weberiana V, 5. 129, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preussischer Kulturbesitz. The
Viennese playbill is reprinted in Carl Maria von Weber: musikalische Werke, erste kritische
Gesamptausgabe, H. J. Moser, ed., ii/1: Jugendopern, Alfred Lorenz, ed. (Augsberg: Dr.
Benno Filser, 1926), IX. Hereafter, Lorenz, “Waldmädchen.”
2
2
Petersburg and at Prague in Czech.3 Until very recently, however, there was no
evidence to substantiate either of those claims.
In 2000 Russian musicologist Natalia Gubkina announced the discovery of a
complete score and a full set of orchestra parts to Das Waldmädchen.4 The long-lost
documents, which she describes as performance copies, were stored in the central
archives of the Mariinsky State Theater at St. Petersburg. They had not surfaced for
nearly two hundred years. Previously, only two fragments of Weber’s early opera were
known to be extant: the middle section and end of a soprano aria, and the beginning and
middle section of a trio for soprano, tenor, and bass.5 Those fragments were published
in 1926 as part of an unfinished critical edition of Weber’s music.6 Gubkina’s discovery
is of tremendous importance to Weber scholars, for the St. Petersburg score to Das
Waldmädchen represents the earliest complete example of Weber’s music for the German
opera stage.
Carl Maria von Weber, “Autobiographische Skizze,” in Georg Kaiser, Sämtliche
Schriften von Carl Maria von Weber; kritische Ausgabe (Berlin, n. p, 1908), 127. Weber never
visited St. Petersburg. An English version of Weber’s autobiographical sketch is
published in Carl Maria von Weber: Writings on Music, ed. John Warrack, trans. Martin
Cooper (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 250–54. Hereafter, Warrack,
Weber: Writings.
3
RF-Sprob, Sign. I, 1. W.373, Gosudarstvenny akademichesky Mariinsky teatr
Centralʹnaya muzykalnaya biblioteka. This discovery was formally announced in
Natalia Gubkina, “Carl Maria von Webers ‘Waldmädchen’: Ein wiedergefundenes
Jugendwerk,” Die Musikforschung 53 (2000), 57–59. Hereafter, Gubkina, “Webers
Waldmädchen.” I am especially grateful to Frank Heidlberger for informing me of this
important discovery during the preliminary phase of my research.
4
Mus. Ms. autogr. C. M. v. Weber WFN 5 (3), Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin,
Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Jähns identified these fragments as Weberiana I:1 in Friedrich
Wilhelm Jähns, Weberiana, his manuscript catalog in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin,
Preußischer Kulturbesitz.
5
6
Lorenz, “Waldmädchen,” 2–12.
3
Gubkina was conducting extensive archival research on the history of German
opera in St. Petersburg, where she located a newspaper notice about a performance of
Das Waldmädchen by a German company at St. Petersburg in February 1804. 7 Based on
that evidence she conducted her successful search for the score.8 In addition, Gubkina
subsequently learned that Steinsberg had been at St. Petersburg in 1802, where he was
the director of a German theater company. Her findings support Weber’s claim that his
early opera was performed at that location.
Steinsberg’s participation in the German theater community of St. Petersburg in
1802 leaves open the possibility that he brought Weber’s score to that city and
underscores the need to learn more about his professional life, particularly his status at
the time he collaborated with Weber in 1800. The present study addresses that topic
directly, simultaneously contributing new information about the historical and cultural
milieu from which Weber’s early opera originated and its subsequent performance
history.
The first chapter outlines Weber’s musical activities prior to 1800, especially his
training and experience as a composer and his knowledge of contemporary German
theater repertoire and stagecraft. Most of Weber’s childhood was spent traveling with
his family’s touring theater company. His parents and half-siblings were all established
theater musicians. It is therefore important to consider the aggregate influence of those
experiences when Weber composed the score to Das Waldmädchen. The compositions
Weber produced with guidance from his first music teachers are identified, as are the
Natalia Gubkina, “Deutsches Musiktheater in St. Petersburg am Anfang des 19.
Jahrhunderts,” in Musikgeschichte in Mittel- und Osteuropa, Mitteilungen der internationalen
Arbeitsgemeinschaft an der Technischen Universität Chemnitz 4 (1999), 95 ff.
7
Gubkina cites a casual announcement in the Nordisches Archiv, vol. 2 (St.
Petersburg, 1804), 62. Apparently, the opera was presented on the stage of the
Kušelevschen House as part of a benefit performance for the singer Johann Hübsch.
Gubkina, “Webers Waldmädchen,” 53, 58. It is possible that the recently discovered
score and parts were used for that performance.
8
4
circumstances of his childhood, including the plan he devised with his father to open a
lithography firm at Freiberg (Saxony) in 1800. Appendix A, which lists many of the
German operas that premiered from 1786 to 1796, supports a broader understanding of
the theatrical, musical, and social surroundings of Weber’s youth.
The second chapter establishes the inspiration for and performance history of a
Viennese pantomime ballet called Das Waldmädchen (1796). That popular stage work,
written by Italian-born dancer Joseph Trafieri and Moravian-born composer Paul
Wranitzky, was exceptionally well received. Playbills preserved in the theater collection
of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek record frequent performances of this stage
work in Vienna’s court theaters between 1796 and 1801 (compiled in Appendix B) and
help to connect that stage work to Prague’s Nostitz Theater, where a new version of the
ballet premiered in 1798. The playbills from the first and second performances of Das
Waldmädchen state that the ballet was inspired by reports of actual feral children, listing
three cases that were well known at the time. This significant detail is perhaps the most
fascinating aspect of this study, for it demonstrates a strong connection between societal
interests and the Viennese stage, while also demonstrating another important link
between the genres of pantomime ballet and German popular opera. The conventions of
Viennese pantomime ballet, as well as the organization of Wranitzky’s score, are also
described in Chapter 2.
Steinsberg was an individual of considerable importance to Prague’s German
and Czech theater communities, a fact not previously reflected in Weber scholarship.9
The course of his career is described in the first section of Chapter 3, followed by
information about his long-standing allegiance to the vaterländische Gesellschaft
(Vlastenskĕho divadle U Hybernů in Czech sources), an important group of Czech-born
actors, singers, and dancers. Members of the vaterländische Gesellschaft performed
German-language stage works, but they also produced many stage works in Czech.
Constant von Wurzbach, “Steinsberg, Karl Franz Ritter von,” in Biographisches
Lexikon des Kaiserthums Österreich, 60 vols. (Vienna: K. K. Hof-und Staatsdruckerei, 1879),
38: 152–59, hereafter Wurzbach, “Steinsberg.”
5
9
Bibliographic and archival research undertaken at Prague and Vienna in May, June, and
July 2004 yielded substantial information about Steinsberg’s activities with that troupe,
helping to identify the original cast members from the premiere of Weber’s opera Das
Waldmädchen in 1800. A conflict of interests with the Germanized nobility of Prague,
known as the Bohemian Estates, had forced members of the vaterländische Gesellschaft to
leave their city in 1799, under Steinsberg’s direction. The troupe’s earlier history in
Prague, their touring performances between Vienna and Freiberg in 1799–1800, and the
various roles several company members played in the first production of Weber’s early
opera, are all described in Chapter 3.
Chapter 4 outlines the performance history of Weber’s Das Waldmädchen, leaving
open the possibility that the opera was performed at Prague in Czech, as Weber claimed.
This chapter also addresses Weber’s subsequent interest in returning to Steinsberg’s
story of the mute forest maiden in 1807 as the basis for his new opera, Silvana. A
chronological list of all of Weber’s stage works is provided to illustrate the significance
of Das Waldmädchen and Silvana in his development as an opera composer.
Chapter 5 provides a synopsis of Weber’s Das Waldmädchen. Because the spoken
text to Weber’s opera has not survived and the full score has not yet been available for
examination by this author, the synopsis was derived in part by consulting the critical
edition of Weber’s score to Silvana, with the understanding that Hiemer’s libretto to
Silvana was based on Steinsberg’s libretto to Das Waldmädchen. Weber’s opera depicts a
mute forest maiden, whose identity becomes a critical aspect of the story’s dénouement.
It is set in a hereditary forest, and the opening scene takes place near the entrance to
Silwana’s home, a cave. The names of several of the characters from Das Waldmädchen
were changed in Silvana, including the name of the title character, which was originally
spelled “Silwana.” Weber or Hiemer changed her name to “Silvana” for the second
setting of the Waldmädchen story in 1808–10, a distinction that is used throughout this
document with regard to the earlier and later version, respectively. Otherwise, the
stories of the two operas are essentially the same.
6
Chapter 6 describes the extant primary sources for Weber’s Das Waldmädchen and
compares the musical organization of his score to Wranitzky’s pantomime ballet.
Gubkina’s description of the St. Petersburg score and orchestra parts to Das Waldmädchen
is an informative and thorough treatment of the subject.10 That score was not available
for examination when this study was undertaken, so Gubkina’s careful description must
suffice until a critical edition of those documents is published, or until the score can be
personally examined. Incipits to each of the musical numbers of Weber’s opera are
included in Chapter 6. Because the expressive conventions generally associated with
German Romantic opera may have evolved from the conventions of pantomime ballet
and popular German theater at the end of the eighteenth century, a comparison of the
dramatic elements of Wranitzky’s ballet score with comparable elements of Weber’s
opera score has also been made.
Chapter 7 considers the stature of several cast members from Das Waldmädchen
and identifies some who eventually returned to Prague, where Weber’s opera was
eventually performed in Czech in 1806. The circumstances surrounding the production
of Czech-language stage works between 1800 and 1806 are described, and the role of
Prague’s powerful theater commission is again considered.11 Weber’s claim of a
performance at Prague is also corroborated.
In the end, this investigation brings into clearer focus both the broad and
particular conditions that contributed to Weber’s first professionally produced opera,
especially the previously unrecognized roles of Steinsberg and his talented company
members. Their connections to the vibrant theatrical communities of Vienna and
Natalia Gubkina, “Das Waldmädchen von Carl Maria von Weber: Notizen zum
Petersburger Aufführungsmaterial,” Weberiana 11 (2001), 33–51; hereafter, Gubkina,
“Notizen.”
10
Both Müller and Weber were later employed by Prague’s theater commission.
Müller directed the German company of the Theater of the Estates from 1807–1813. He
was replaced in 1813 by Weber, who remained in that post until 1816, when he resigned
to become the new director of the German National Opera at Dresden.
7
11
Prague, coupled with the public’s ongoing interest in stage works portraying feral
children, are important factors in the performance history of Weber’s early opera.
Additionally, Weber’s score reflects some of the conventions of Viennese pantomime
ballet, including several aspects of Wranitzky’s score to Das Waldmädchen, shining new
light on the relationship between pantomime ballet and German opera at the beginning
of the nineteenth century.
8
CHAPTER 1
CARL MARIA VON WEBER’S
MUSICAL INFLUENCES, 1786–1800
Franz Anton von Weber (1734–1812) frequently boasted about his youngest son’s
musical gifts. Although Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826) did not receive regular
music lessons until he was nearly ten years old, his childhood was exceptionally
musical. In 1787 the entire family, including infant Carl Maria, had moved from Eutin
(Carl’s birthplace in November 1786) to Hamburg. There Franz Anton hired several
actors and musicians and established the Weber Theater Company under his own
direction. The troupe also included Weber’s talented mother Genovefa (1764–1798), an
Italian-trained soprano from Vienna, and four grown children from Franz Anton’s first
marriage to the late Anna Maria Fumetti.1 Throughout the first decade of his life Carl
Maria and his family traversed the German-speaking regions of Europe. They went
south to Vienna (1787), then north again to Hamburg and Kassel (1788–89), later to
Meiningen (1789–90), and then back to Hamburg. A successful residency at Nürnberg
(1791–92) was followed by a series of brief residencies at Bayreuth (1793 and 1794),
Erlangen (1793), Ansbach (1793–94), Hildburghausen, Rudolstadt, and Weimar (1794).
At the time Weber’s half siblings included Fridolin (1761–1833), Josepha (1763–
1792), Edmund (1766–1828), and Maria Anna Theresia Magdalena (b. 1768), who went
by the name Johanna and was later was known as Jeanette. Lucy Poate Stebbins and
Richard Poate Stebbins, Enchanted Wanderer: The Life of Carl Maria von Weber (New York:
Putnam, 1940), 292. Hereafter, Stebbins, Weber .
1
9
In 1794 Franz Anton sold his rights in the company to a fellow actor. Genovefa
continued to sing with the troupe through May. Similarly, Weber’s half brother
Edmund, along with his wife, worked an additional six weeks for the new owner before
traveling to Linz to work with a different troupe. Weber’s half sister, Jeanette, and her
husband, actor Vincenz Weyrauch, had already secured a lengthy engagement for
themselves at Goethe’s theater in Weimar. Their connections allowed them to help
Franz Anton negotiate a contract there for Genovefa. She supported her husband and
young son by working at Weimar from 17 June 1794 to 5 September 1794. During that
three-month period she sang the role of Constanze in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem
Serail , along with twenty-nine other principal roles.2
Carl Maria’s musical development was not entirely neglected during his
childhood years of travel. His father, aspiring to produce a Mozartian Wunderkind
insisted that the boy begin violin lessons at age three. Eldest son Fridolin (1761–1833)
was assigned to teach the small child. The experience proved frustrating and
unsuccessful.3 Carl Maria received no other formal music instruction during the next
seven years. Nevertheless, he was a constant witness to the professional activities of his
family members as they prepared scores, learned new roles, and made artistic and
practical decisions about all aspects of staging. From these experiences he acquired a
Goethe’s theater at Weimar was emerging as an important venue for German
drama. A list of Genovefa’s roles there can be found in S. Geiser, “Goethe und die
Mutter Carl Maria von Webers: Erstveröffentlichung eines Theatervertrags zwischen
dem Weimarischen Theater und Genovefa von Weber (1794), nach der Handschrift
Goethes,” Schweizerische Musikzeitung 97/5 (May 1957): 177–80. See also
Joachim Veit “Weber, Franz Anton,” and Michael C. Tusa, “Weber, Carl Maria
(Friedrich Ernst) von,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., ed.
Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2001), 27: 135. Hereafter, Tusa, “Weber”; see also
Stebbins, Weber, 12.
2
Tusa, “Weber,” 135. See also Joachim Veit, “Weber, Fridolin (Stephan Johann
Nepomuk Andreas Maria)[Fritz] (ii),” The New Grove Dictionary of Music Online ed. L.
Macy (Accessed 6 January 2003), http://www.grovemusic.com. Hereafter, Veit, Fridolin
Weber.”
3
10
broad understanding of German theatrical conventions and effective stage craft. Weber
also became intimately familiar with many of the popular stage works that were being
performed in German theaters during the last decade of the eighteenth century,
especially the spoken dramas and comedies of August Friedrich Ferdinand von
Kotzebue (1761–1819) and August Wilhelm Iffland (1759–1814).
In the same manner Weber also became familiar with many popular Singspiels.
According to Carl Costenoble, an actor briefly employed by Franz Anton at Salzburg in
1795–96, Franz Anton favored German stage works (original and in translation) by such
composers as W. A. Mozart (1756–1791), Wenzel Müller (1759–1835), Christian Gottlob
Neefe (1748–1798), and Weber’s half-brother Edmund Weber (1766–1828), who by that
time was helping to manage the reorganized company.4 Undoubtedly, those works
provided Weber with early models of the genre he later infused with his own
expressions of German Romanticism.
The musical accomplishments of Carl Maria’s two half-brothers indicate the
direction Franz Anton probably expected his youngest son to follow. 5 Fridolin was both
a violinist and a composer. In the late 1780s he briefly held a position with Haydn’s
orchestra at Esterháza, before returning to the family company in 1789–90 for
performances at Meiningen. He remained in his father’s employment until the mid1790s.6 Edmund was also very active as a performer and a composer. He produced
scores to several Singspiels, including Der Transport im Koffer (Nürnberg , 1792), Martin
Fex, oder Ich habe der [sic] Brüder mehr (Salzburg, 1795), and Die Zwillinge (Salzburg,
See C. L. Costenoble, Tagebücher von seiner Jugend bis zur Übersiedlung nach Wien,
2 vols. (Berlin: Gesellschaft für Theatergeschichte, 1912), 1: 265, 2: 272; and Tusa,
“Weber,” 135. The company disbanded at the end of that season.
4
Veit, “Fridolin Weber,” and Joachim Veit, “Weber, (Franz) Edmund (Kaspar
Johann Nepomuk Joseph Maria),” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,
2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2001), 27: 134. Hereafter, Veit,
“Edmund Weber.”
5
6
Stebbins, Weber, 12.
11
?1797).7 Fridolin and Edmund were well-rounded theater professionals, according to the
standards of the day. Both were accomplished instrumentalists and composers, with
additional experience as prompters, choral directors, singers, stage managers, and even
company managers.
Musical collaboration was normal among the Weber family members. Scholars
surmise that Franz Anton and Edmund probably assisted Fridolin with the two
pasticcios ascribed to him: Der Freybrief (Meiningen, 1789) and Der Äpfeldieb (Hamburg,
1791).8 These works were based on music by Joseph Haydn, and indeed both of Weber’s
brothers had studied under Haydn, so it seems likely that the young Carl Maria would
have been particularly familiar with Haydn’s style.9
Table 1.1 lists works known to have been in the repertoire of the Weber Theater
Company during Weber’s childhood, along with popular contemporary works that may
have been performed by the troupe. They represent the types of stage works that
provided Carl Maria von Weber with his earliest understanding of the characteristics of
successful German operas. (See Appendix A for a comprehensive list of German operas
that premiered between 1787 and 1796. Works on that list are all Singspiels composed
and premiered during Weber’s childhood but before he received any formal musical
instruction.)
7
Veit, “Fridolin Weber.”
8
Joachim Veit, “Fridolin Weber,” 27: 134.
In 1783, following the death of their mother, Fridolin (23) and Edmund (18)
went to Vienna to study with Joseph Haydn. An inheritance from their late mother
probably funded their studies. The young men rented rooms in the home of a local
cabinet maker named Brenner. They received a visit from Franz Anton in the summer of
1783, during which the fifty-one year old father courted and married the cabinet maker’s
twenty-two year old daughter Genovefa, an accomplished singer. The newlyweds,
along with Fridolin and Edmund, journeyed to Eutin at summer’s end. Franz Anton
was a town musician in that city, working for the Prince Bishop. The next year, shortly
after Carl Maria was born, the Webers left Eutin for Hamburg, established their family
theater troupe, and began their extensive tours. Stebbins, Weber, 9–11.
9
12
Table 1.1
Partial Repertoire of the Weber Theater Company, 1787–96
COMPOSER
TITLE
PREMIERE
PERFORMANCE
H. Dietrich
Christian
Aumann (n. d.)
Das neue Rosenmädchen
Hamburg, 1789
Likely
Carl Ditters von
Dittersdorf
(1739–99)
Der Betrug durch
Aberglauben, or Die
Schatzgräber
Vienna, 1786
Hamburg,
8 December 1788
Carl Ditters von
Dittersdorf
Der Apotheker und der
Doktor (Doktor und
Apotheker)
Vienna, 1786
Kassel, 1787
Die Liebe im Narrenhause
(as Orpheus der Zweyte)
Vienna, 1787
Hamburg, 1788
Democrit der Zweyte,
trans. of Democrito
corretto (Ger. versions
include: Silene; Demokrit;
and other titles)
Vienna, 1787
Hamburg, 1788
Hieronimus Knicker,
(also known as Lucius
Knicker; Chrisostomus
Knicker)
Vienna, 1789
Likely
Der ehrliche Schweitzer
Nuremberg,
1790
Likely
Johann Karl
Mainberger
(1750–1815)
13
Table 1.1—continued
COMPOSER
TITLE
PREMIERE
PERFORMANCE
W. A. Mozart
(1756–91)
Don Giovanni (trans. by
Friedrich Ludwig
Schröder as Don Juan)
Prague, 1787
Hamburg, 1789
Die Entführung aus dem
Serail
Vienna, 1782
Likely
Kaspar, der Fagottist
Vienna, 1791
Likely
Das Neusonntagskind
Vienna, 1793
Likely
Christian Gottlob
Neefe (1748–98)
Adelheid von Veltheim
Frankfurt, 1780
Likely
Edmund Weber
(1766–1831 or
later)
Der Transport im Koffer
Nuremberg,
1792
Nuremberg, 1792
Martin Fex, oder Ich habe
der Brüder mehr
Salzburg, 1795
Salzburg, 1795
Der Freybrief
Meiningen,
1789
Meiningen, 1789
Der Äpfeldieb
Hamburg, 1791
Hamburg, 1791
Die puecefarbnen Schule,
oder Die schöne
Schusterinn
Vienna, 1779
Likely
Die Bergknappen
Vienna, 1778
Likely
Wenzel Müller
(1759–1835)
Fridolin Weber
(1761–1833)
Ignaz Umlauff
(1746–96)
Carl Maria’s formal music lessons finally began in 1796, after his mother’s illness
forced the family to stop touring. Genovefa was pregnant with her second child and
was suffering from active tuberculosis. The Webers settled at Hildburghausen (near
Meiningen), where Johann Peter Heuschkel (1773–1853), a local oboist, organist,
14
conductor, and composer (especially of songs), was engaged to instruct the boy in
thoroughbass.10 He taught Carl Maria to play the pianoforte and may have instructed
him on other instruments. As an enthusiastic and capable pupil, Weber grew extremely
fond of his first music teacher, recalling later in life that Heuschkel had provided him
with “the true, best foundation for strong, clear, characteristic playing on the pianoforte
and the equal training of both hands.”11
Genovefa gave birth to a baby girl in December 1797. Once she was strong
enough to travel, the family moved from Hildburghausen to Salzburg, planning to
embark from there on a tour of Bavaria, Baden, and the Palatinate. Political
developments intervened, however, for not only had Napoleon’s troops advanced to
parts of Italy and Bavaria earlier that year, but the Austrian government also
surrendered Belgium, the Rhine frontier, and Lombardy to the French under the Treaty
of Campo Formio. The presence of French troops along the Rhine convinced Franz
Anton to keep his family at Salzburg. Yet because he was not allowed to produce stage
works under Count Colloredo’s rule, he had to disband the theater troupe. (Employees
had received only half pay since 1796.) He would never again direct his own company.
Carl Maria’s musical training was thoughtfully addressed again. Franz Anton
engaged court conductor and organist Michael Haydn (1737–1806), Joseph Haydn’s
younger brother and a highly regarded musician, composer, and teacher, to instruct the
boy in counterpoint. Carl Maria’s earliest works, Sechs Fughetten, op. 1 (J. 1–6), were
composed under Michael Haydn’s guidance. Haydn’s instruction continued at least
though spring of 1798, when tragedy struck the Weber family; Genovefa died from
tuberculosis (13 March 1798). Some time afterward a despondent Weber wrote to his
John Warrack and Joachim Veit, “Heuschkel, Johann Peter,” in The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2001),
11:469.
10
Carl Maria von Weber, “Autobiographische Skizze,” in Georg Kaiser, ed.,
Sämtliche Schriften von Carl Maria von Weber: kritische Ausgabe (Berlin: Schuster & Löffle,
1908), 30. Hereafter, Kaiser, Sämtliche Schriften.
11
15
former teacher, Hueschkel, telling of his mother’s death and explaining that he would
soon go to Vienna with his father, aunt, and baby sister, with hope of meeting Joseph
Haydn. There is no evidence that Weber actually met the famous composer, although
the journey to Vienna is confirmed by Weber’s friendship with Ignaz Susann, a young
Viennese law student and amateur flute player.12
Weber received a public affirmation of his compositional talent later that year
when his Sechs Fughetten, gratefully dedicated to brother Edmund, were published at
Salzburg. He immediately forwarded copies to the Leipzig publishing firm Breitkopf &
Härtel, and the piece was favorably reviewed by Johann Friedrich Rochlitz (1769–1842),
editor of the newly established weekly journal Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung.13 This
was Weber’s first association with the influential Rochlitz, who would later become one
of his closest musical associates.
Toward the end of 1798 Franz Anton left Carl Maria and his infant sister at
Salzburg in the temporary care of his sister Adelheid.14 He traveled alone to Munich,
then returned for the children at year’s end. Sadly, Weber’s baby sister died near the
end of December 1798. Leaving Adelheid in Salzburg, Franz Anton and Carl Maria
relocated to Munich, which proved to be a particularly rich musical environment for the
boy.15 Its theaters presented many original German operas and German translations of
popular French and Italian stage works.16 In addition, the community included a
Weber began what was to become a lengthy correspondence with Susann
toward the end of 1798. Stebbins, Weber, 22.
12
13
Stebbins, Weber, 23. Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 1 (1798), col. 32. Hereafter,
AmZ.
Stebbins, Weber, 24. Weber’s baby sister was named Maria Antonia Adelheid
Felicitas Luise Philippine Johanna Walburge Josephe Joachima von Weber. Warrack,
Weber, 31, and Stebbins, Weber, 22.
14
15
Tusa, “Weber,” 135. Stebbins, Weber, 23.
The German Ritterdrama , or chivalric play, was particularly popular in that city.
This was a type of historical fantasy. Warrack, Weber, 32.
16
16
sizeable number of accomplished musicians, composers, actors, and music publishers.
Convinced that vocal training was a prerequisite to composing effectively for the voice,
Franz Anton enrolled Carl Maria in voice lessons with Giovanni Valesi (born Johann
Evangelist Walleshauser, 1735–1816).17 Valesi was a well-known tenor and highly
regarded vocal pedagogue, who trained more than two hundred singers in the course of
his career.18 Long since retired, he received a generous pension from the Munich Opera,
allowing him to devote his full attention to his many pupils’ progress. Weber had a
pleasing voice and learned easily under Valesi’s guidance.
Weber also began studying piano and composition with Johann Nepomuk
Kalcher (1764–1827), a pupil of Munich theorist Joseph Grätz (1760–1826). Grätz had
also been a pupil of Michael Haydn years earlier.19 Franz Anton had originally asked
Grätz to teach Carl Maria, but Grätz refused, probably fearing that he would not be paid
regularly. 20 Regardless, the father’s musical values are evident through the various
teachers he selected for his talented sons.
Twelve-year-old Weber worked prolifically under Kalcher’s encouraging
guidance, composing several piano sonatas, sets of variations, string trios, and songs, as
well as two larger works—a Mass and his first dramatic work, the Singspiel Die Macht
17
Stebbins, Weber, 24; Warrack, Weber, 32; Tusa, “Weber,” 135.
H. Schmid, “Valesi [Vallesi], Giovanni [Walleshauser, Johann Evangelist],” in
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan,
1980), 19: 500–01.
18
John Warrack, “Kalcher [Kalchner], Johann Nepomuk,” in The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), 9:774;
hereafter, Warrack, “Kalcher.” See also, Lothar Hoffman-Erbrecht, “Kalcher (Kalchner),
Johann Nepomuk” in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. Friedrich Blume.
(Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1958), 7: 436; and E. Van Der Straeten and John Warrack, “Graetz
[Grätz, Graz], Joseph,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley
Sadie. (London: Macmillan, 1980), 7: 610.
19
20
Warrack, Weber , 32; Tusa, “Weber,” 135.
17
der Liebe und des Weins (1798–99, lost).21 Table 1.2 lists the works Weber is known to have
composed prior to August 1800. The works are listed by year of composition and
according to the numbers of Jähns’s catalogue.22
Table 1.2
Weber’s Compositions Prior to August 180023
TITLE
JÄHN’S
CATALOGUE
SCORING
DATE/
LOCATION
SOURCE
Sechs Fughetten
Op. 1,
J. 1–6
Open score
1798, Salzburg
Published in
Salzburg,
1799
Die Macht der Liebe
und des Weins
Anh. 6
Singspiel
1798–99,
Munich
Lost
Vierstimmige
Gesänge
Anh. 9
Vocal
quartet
1799, Munich?
Lost
Missa Solenne
(Grosse
Jugendmesse)
Anh. 8
S, A, T, B,
SATB,
Orchestra,
organ
1799, Munich,
rev. 1802
1802 revised
copy is extant
21
Tusa, “Weber,” 27: 135.
Friedrich Wilhelm Jähns, Carl Maria von Weber in seinen Werken: chronologischthematisches Verzeichniss seiner sämmtlichen Compositionen (Berlin, 1871).
22
23
Tusa, “Weber,” 27: 159–66.
18
TITLE
JÄHN’S
CATALOGUE
SCORING
DATE/
LOCATION
SOURCE
Canons
Anh. 10
Not
specified
1799, Munich?
Lost
Three Easy Trios
Anh. 11–13
Vn, Va, Vc
1799, Munich?
Lost
Six Variations [I]
Anh. 14
Solo Piano
1799, Munich?
Lost
Six Variations [II]
Anh. 15
Solo Piano
1
799, Munich?
Lost
3 Piano Sonatas
Anh. 16–18
Solo piano
1799, Munich?
Lost
Six variations on
the song Lieber
Augustin
Anh. 19
Solo piano
1799, Munich?
Lost
Three trios
Anh. 24–26
Vn, Va, Vc,
1799/1801
Lost
Six Variations on
an Original Theme
Op. 2, J. 7
Solo piano
1800, Munich
Published in
Munich, 1800
In his autobiographical sketch (14 March 1818), Weber recalled his musical
development under Kalcher’s guidance:
At the end of 1798 I went to Munich where I studied singing with Valesi
and composition with the present court organist, Kalcher. It is to
Kalcher’s clear, well-ordered and scrupulous teaching that I am indebted
for my mastery and ease in the handling of academic forms, more
particularly four-part a cappella writing. Such things must become second
nature to any composer who wishes to express himself and his ideas
clearly, just as prosody and meter must become second nature to a poet. I
finished my studies with an industry that never flagged.
A preference for the dramatic began to become unmistakable in my
musical individuality, and under the eyes of my master I wrote an opera
entitled Die Macht der Liebe und des Weins, a grand Mass, several
19
pianoforte sonatas, variations, string trios, songs, etc., all of which were
later destroyed in a fire.24
His enthusiasm for composition was diverted in 1799, however, when he was
apprenticed to Aloys Senefelder (1771–1834), one of his father’s former acquaintances
from the court theater of Bavaria. Having recently invented the printing process now
known as lithography, Senefelder was positioned to receive a fifteen-year royal
concession for the technique.25 Franz Anton was interested in acquiring the new method
for his own use, recognizing it as a profitable way to publish Carl Maria’s music. As
Senefelder’s apprentice, Carl Maria was able to learn the new method thoroughly.
In May 1799 Weber and his father left Munich for several months. There is no
evidence that Carl Maria performed in any of the locations he subsequently visited,
although his father had stated publicly that they were embarking on a summer concert
tour. More likely, the purpose of their journey was to find a suitable location in which to
establish a lithography business of their own. The Webers made periodic stops at
Stuttgart, Bamberg, Hildburghausen, Freiberg, Prague, and Karlsb ad, before returning
to Munich. At Karlsbad Carl Maria was introduced to Karl Ritter von Steinsberg.26
Warrack, Writings, 251–52. Weber’s “Autobiographische Skizze” was written
in Dresden on 14 March 1818 for Amadeus Wendt (1783–1836). Wendt, a professor of
philosophy in Göttingen, was a well-known writer on music and aesthetics. He never
published any of the material from the sketch, and his reason for gathering the
information is not known. In the past, important scholars have regarded Weber’s
autobiographical sketch with skepticism, questioning its accuracy and completeness.
Gubkina’s discovery of a Weber’s score at St. Petersburg has confirmed its reliability
with regard to the composer’s claim that Das Waldmädchen was produced in that city,
however, and Weber’s claim that Das Waldmädchen was also produced at Prague, in
Czech, will be confirmed at a later point in the present study. For these reasons,
skepticism regarding the reliability of this document must be reconsidered.
24
On 3 September 1799 Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria awarded a fifteen-year
patent for lithographic printing to Senefelder and his partner, Franz Gleissner (1759–
1818). Weber became Senefelder’s apprentice in winter or spring 1799.
25
26
The Czech resort city of Karlsbad is known today as Karlovy Vary.
20
Apparently, the colorful theater director impressed the young composer, reawakening
his interest in writing music for the stage. Weber and his father returned to Munich
early in 1800, resuming their affiliation with Senefelder, but they left Munich
permanently three months later.27
Few of the compositions Weber wrote while living in Munich have survived.
His Sechs Fughetten (J. 1?6, published at Salzburg in 1799), along with the Six Variations
on an Original Theme (J. 7, printed in Munich in 1800), and a revised copy (1802) of
portions of the Missa solenne (Grosse Jugendmesse , Anh. 8) are the only extant examples of
his abilities before composing Das Waldmädchen.28 The fate of other early works is
uncertain. The composer always claimed that the bulk of his juvenile works had burned
in a cupboard fire at Kalcher’s home in 1799, a story that was recounted in the
composer’s obituary. The “cupboard fire” explanation cannot be wholly accurate,
however, because Weber wrote several letters to publishers after the alleged 1799 fire,
offering to sell some of those same works.29
Freiberg (Saxony) became Carl Maria’s next home in August 1800. The city had
an abundance of mineral resources, the technical resources of a famous mining school
(the Bergakademie ), and a good theater. Most important, it was located in Saxony,
27
Stebbins, Weber, 26–7.
In 1800 Senefelder’s press published Weber’s Six Variations on an Original
Theme, op. 7. Notably, the title page featured a warm dedication to Weber’s Munich
teacher, Kalcher. Warrack, Weber , 33. Weber immediately forwarded a copy to
Breitkopf & Härtel, and again it received a favorable review from Rochlitz in the AmZ.
Rochlitz severely criticized Senefelder’s press for musical inaccuracies in the edition,
however.
28
Max Maria von Weber adopted his father’s explanation of that cupboard fire.
However, others scholars, including Gustav Schilling and Michael Tusa, assert that
Weber destroyed his juvenile works at a later date, possibly in 1802. Schilling and Tusa
point out that Weber and his father were still offering some of those same works to
publishers in November 1801. See Tusa, “Weber,” 27: 135. Another possibility is that
some of Weber’s juvenile works survived the fire because they had remained in Weber’s
possession.
29
21
beyond the reach of Senefelder’s Bavarian patent. Weber’s autobiographical sketch
explains his original enthusiasm for Freiberg in the following terms, making no mention
of Steinsberg or a libretto:
. . . The youthful urge to give oneself to everything new and sensational
awoke in me the idea of seizing supremacy in Senefelder’s newly
discovered process of lithography . . . . the wish to try this out on a large
scale impelled us to go to Freiberg, where all materials seemed most
conveniently to hand.30
Weber later explained that
. . . the extensiveness and the mechanical, soul-destroying nature of the
business soon made me give it up and set myself with redoubled
enthusiasm to composition.31
Another primary source, the recently discovered autobiography by Ferdinand
von Lutzendorff, a childhood friend of Weber’s at Munich, provides a different account
of that period. Lutzendorff claimed that the fledgling composer underwent a period of
extreme emotional distress upon learning that he was to leave Munich permanently.
Both boys, distressed by their impending separation, attempted suicide by jumping into
a nearby river together.32 The truth may lie somewhere between the two extremes.
Carl Maria and his father left Munich permanently in the spring of 1800,
conducting a brief concert tour of Erfurt, Gotha, and Leipzig before arriving in Freiberg
in August. Once there, Weber’s failing enthusiasm for lithography happily coincided
with the arrival of Steinsberg and his troupe at that same city on 24 August 1800. The
lithography firm never opened. Instead, Carl Maria immediately began composing a
score for Steinsberg’s newest libretto, Das Waldmädchen.
30
Kaiser, Sämtliche Schriften, 127, translated in Warrack, Weber, 33.
31
Warrack, Weber , 33–34.
Rescued and uninjured, they were reunited at Prague in 1813–14. Eveline
Bartlitz, “Eine vergessene Freundschaft,” Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 29/1 (1987), 69–
73.
32
22
Weber was remarkably well prepared for that task. His family’s lifestyle had
already familiarized him with the musical and technical demands of staging a German
opera production. He was also well-versed in the musical and theatrical conventions
and German stage repertoire of the late eighteenth century. And he had already
composed his first opera. When Steinsberg approached him at Freiberg, Weber may
have been eager to test his proficiencies.
23
CHAPTER 2
FERAL CHILDREN AND WRANITZKY’S PANTOMIME-BALLET
DAS WALDMÄDCHEN (1796)
On Friday evening, 23 September 1796, a pantomime-ballet titled Das
Waldmädchen was premiered at Vienna’s Kärntnerthortheater. The music was by Paul
Wranitzky (1756–1808), a prominent Moravian-born composer who worked in Vienna’s
Imperial Court theaters for most of his career.1 The choreography for the pantomimeballet was by Guiseppe Traffieri (n. d.), a solo dancer in the court’s ballet troupe.2 Das
In modern Czech the composer’s name is spelled Pavel Vranický. A highly
regarded violinist, conductor, and composer, Wranitzky moved from Olomouc to
Vienna in 1776. He studied theology and directed the seminary choir for several years.
In 1784 he accepted the post of music director to Count Johann Baptist Esterházy, and he
was appointed music director at Vienna’s Kärntnerthortheater in October 1785.
Wranitzky joined the orchestra of the prestigious Hoftheater nächtst der Burg, or
Burgtheater, in 1787. In 1792 or 1793 he became the music director to the court opera
company, the position he held when he composed the score to Das Waldmädchen.
Wranitzky’s talents were greatly admired by Vienna’s musical elite. A composer of
considerable significance to the early Romantic movement, he composed 51 symphonies
and music for many successful operas and ballets during his lengthy career. His bestknown opera, and one of his most frequently performed stage works, was his first
Singspiel, Oberon (1789), which premiered at Vienna’s Wiedner Theater. It was not
eclipsed in popularity by the many other settings of that story until Weber’s English
language version premiered in 1826. (Weber visited Wranitzky in Vienna in 1803.)
Milan Poštolka and Robert Hickman, “Wranitzky [Vranický, Wraniczky, Wranizky],
Paul [Pavel],” Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 31 July 2004),
http://www.grovemusic.com. Hereafter, Poštolka and Hickman, “Wranitzky.”
1
Traffieri and Wranitzky produced at least two pantomime-ballets together: Das
Waldmädchen (1796) and Die Luftfahrer (1797). Traffieri also collaborated with composer
Joseph Weigl (1766–1846), a pupil and protégé of Salieri. Rudolf Angermüller and
2
24
Waldmädchen was presented after a performance of J. F. Jünger’s four-act Lustspiel , Der
Strich durch die Rechnung , as it was customary in Vienna for pantomime-ballets to follow
lengthier stage works such as operas or spoken plays.
An extant playbill lists the stage works performed that evening at each of the
court-operated theaters. The entry for the Kärntnerthortheater and the Hoftheater
nächst der Burg, or Burgtheater, includes the following statement about Das
Waldmädchen:
The pair of boys found in the woods of Lithuania, the wild one from
Hannover, and the young girl found near Champagne provided the
inspiration for this little ballet. The story follows: while enjoying a hunt
away from his homeland, a Polish prince, with the aid of his friend,
discovers a wild maiden. 3
Indeed, this new ballet was inspired by several well-known reports of wild or feral
children. These particular children had been described in a variety of pamphlets,
articles, novels, and larger scholarly works during the eighteenth century. Table 2.1 lists
selected publications that described the kind of children referred to on the playbill for
the premiere of Wranitzky’s Das Waldmädchen.
Teresa Hrdlick-Reichenberger, “Joseph Weigl (ii),” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians, 2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2001), 27: 215–16.
“Die swey in den Wäldern von Lithauen angetroffenen Knaben, der Wilde in
Hannover, und das in der Champagne gefundene Mädchen gaben Gelegenheit zur
Erfundung dieses kleinen Balletes. Der Inhalt ist folgender: Ein pohlnischer Fürst, der
auf seinem Schlosse wohnt, erlustiget sich mit der Jagd, und entdeckt durch Hülfe eines
Freundes ein wildes Mädchen.” 773.042-D, Hofttheater Zettel 23 September 1796,
Theatersammlung, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.
3
25
Table 2.1
Selected Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century
Published Accounts of Feral Children4
AUTHOR
TITLE
CITY
PUBLISHER
DATE
Anonymous;
attributed to
Dr. John
Arbuthnot
“The Savage” in
Miscellaneous Poems by
Several Hands published
by D. Lewis
London
J. Watts
1726
John
Arbuthnot
and Jonathan
Swift
It cannot rain but it pours:
or, London strow'd with
rarities. Being, an account
of . . . And lastly, of the
wonderful wild man that
was nursed in the woods of
Germany by a wild beast,
hunted and taken in toyls
. . . being call'd Peter; and
how he was brought to
Court.
London
J. Roberts
1726
Daniel DeFoe
Mere Nature Delineated;
or, a Body without a Soul.
Being Observations upon
the Young Forester Lately
brought to Town from
Germany . With suitable
applications. Also, a brief
dissertation upon the
usefulness and necessity of
fools, whether political or
natural.
London
T. Warner
1726
These readily available sources demonstrate widespread interest in the topic of
feral children throughout Europe in the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-centuries.
Although fewer German sources are listed, the comments on the playbill from the first
performance of Das Waldmädchen make it clear that Viennese audiences knew of at least
three famous cases in 1796.
4
26
AUTHOR
TITLE
CITY
PUBLISHER
DATE
Attr. Jonathan
Swift
(spurious)
The most wonderful
wonder that ever appear'd
to the wonder of the
British Nation: Being an
account of the travel s of
Mynheer Veteranus, thro'
the woods of Germany;
and an account of his
taking a most monstrous
she bear, who had nurs'd
up the wild boy, their
landing at the tower . . .
with a dialogue between
the old she bear and her
foster son.
Dublin
G. Faulkner
1726
Etienne
Bonnot de
Mably de
Condillac
Essai sur l'Origine des
Connaissances Humaines
Amsterdam
Pierre
Mortier
1746
Louis Racine
(1692–1763)
Epitre II, sur l'Homme,
Poësies nouvelles, in
Oeuvres
Paris
J. B.
Coignard
1747
L. Racine
Epitre II, sur l'Homme,
Poësies nouvelles, in
Oeuvres, 6th ed.
Amsterdam
Marc Michel
Rey
1750
Attributed to
Charles-Marie
La Condamine
(1701–1774),
published by
Madame
Hecquet
Histoire d'une Jeune Fille
Sauvage Trouvée dans les
Bois à l'âge de Dix Ans
Paris
n. p.
1755,
1761
27
AUTHOR
TITLE
CITY
PUBLISHER
DATE
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau
Discours sur l’origine et
les fondements de
l’inegalite parmi les
hommes
Geneva
Marc Michel
Rey
1755
Condillac,
trans. by Mr.
Nugent
An Essay on the Origins
of Human Knowledge,
being a supplement to Mr.
Locke’s essay on the
Human Understanding
London
J. Norse
1756
La
Condamine/
Hecquet
The history of a savage
girl, caught wild in the
woods of Champagne
(translation of Hecquet/
La Condamine, above)
London
R. Dursley &
T. Davidson
1760
La
Condamine/
Hecquet
An Account of a savage
woods of Champagne
Edinburgh
A. Kincaid &
J. Bell
1768
Voltaire
(1694–1778)
Poème sur la loi naturelle
in La Henriade, dix
chants: précédée,
accompagnée, & suivie de
toutes les piéces rélátives a
ce Poëme & a la Poësie
Epique en général
auxquelles on a joint, Le
Temple du Gout les
discours sur l'homme, les
Poëmes de Fontenoy, sur le
Desastre de Lisbonne, sur
la Loi naturelle, &c. &c.
Geneva
n. p.
1771
28
AUTHOR
TITLE
CITY
PUBLISHER
DATE
La
Condamine/
Hecquet
woods of Champagne
London
J. Wren &
W. Hodges
1784
Louis Racine
“Écclaircissement: Sur la
Fille Sauvage dont est
parle dans cette Epître”
in La Grace, poëme; par
Monsieur Racine, De
l'Acedémic Royale des
Inscriptions & BellesLetters
Paris
Londres
1785
Anonymous
The annual register, or a
view of the history,
politics, and literature, for
the years 1784
London
Printed for
G. G. J. and J.
Robinson
1785
François Guil
DucrayDuminil
Lolotte et Fanfan: ou, Les
aventures de deux enfans
abandonnés dans une isle
déserte
Paris
Maradan
1788
DucrayDuminil
Alexis, ou, La maisonnette
dans les bois
Paris
Maradan
1789
La
Condamine/
Hecquet
woods of Champagne
Aberdeen,
England
Burnett &
Rettie
1796
DucrayDuminil
Victor, ou l’enfant de la
forêt
Paris
Le Prieur
1797
DucrayDuminil
Coelina ou l' enfant du
mystère
Paris
Le Prieur
1798
29
AUTHOR
TITLE
CITY
PUBLISHER
DATE
Julien David
Leroy
Mémoire sur les travaux
qui ont rapport à
l'exploitation de la mâture
dans les Pyrénées in Des
navires employés par les
anciens, et de l'usage
qu'on en pourroit faire
dans notre marine
Paris
n. p.
1774,
1803
James Burnet,
Lord
Monboddo
Antient metaphysics.
Volume fourth.
Containing the history of
Man. With an appendix
relating to the fille sauvage
whom the author saw in
France.
Edinburgh
n. p.
1795
La
Condamine/
Hecquet
An account of a most
surprising savage girl,
who was caught wild in
the woods of Champagne, a
province in France . . .
Translated from the
French.
Edinburgh
J. Morren
1800
Jean Marc
Gaspard Itard
(1775–1838)
De l'éducation d'un
homme sauvage ou des
premiers développements
physiques et moraux du
jeune sauvage de
l'Aveyron
Paris
Goujon
1801
Richard
Phillips
Essay on Abstinence from
Animal Food as a Moral
Duty
London
Richard
Phillips
1802
30
AUTHOR
TITLE
CITY
PUBLISHER
DATE
DucrayDuminil;
trans. by
Friedrich von
Oertel
Paul; oder, Vom verfasser
des Victor, der Edlina
Leipzig
J. G. Beygang
1803
Itard
Rapport fait à son
excellence le Ministre de
l'intérieur sur les
nouveaux développemens
et l'état actuel du sauvage
de l'Aveyron
Paris
Imprimérie
impériale
1806
L. Racine
Oeuvres de Louis Racine
Paris
Le Normant
1808
Authors of such documents typically included colorful descriptions of the
children’s odd appearance and behavior. Although the circumstances of each child’s
capture and subsequent “domestication” varied considerably, most had several
characteristics in common. Each had survived alone in the wilderness for an
undetermined period of time, adapting quite remarkably to extremely rough and
isolated conditions. Typically, the children were naked or wearing only tattered rags or
crude animal skins when rescued. They had no discernable language skills, making
only unusual noises—grunts, snorts, whistles, or screams. They also had great difficulty
adjusting to the demands of a more civilized lifestyle. Most were unable to digest
cooked food, for example, having relied for an extended period of time on a diet of raw
foods cobbled together from whatever berries, roots, grasses, fish, or small prey they
could gather or kill themselves. Invariably, these children demonstrated a keen
awareness of their surroundings—ignoring attempts by other people to engage their
attention, while focusing instead on, and often reacting swiftly or unexpectedly to, the
31
slightest movements, sounds, and odors. These kinds of behaviors could have been
convincingly portrayed on the Viennese stage by actors and dancers using various
costumes and makeup, gestures, dances, and music. In this sense, the topic of a story
about a feral girl, or forest maiden, would have been ideally suited for the pantomimeballet genre.
That fact that the notation on the playbill implies public familiarity with these
cases is also significant. The brief mention of the ballet’s inspiration and plot inform ed
the theater-going public that by attending this pantomime-ballet they could see with
their own eyes a vivid depiction of one of the curious creatures, about whom previously
they had only been able to read. The public’s appetite for information on feral children
was only partially satiated by the various contemporary scholarly, journalistic, and
fictional works contemplating mankind’s natural state. Among the authors were
scientists (Monboddo), physicians (Arbuthnot, Itard), philosophers (de Condillac,
Racine), explorers (La Condamine), poets (Voltaire), fictional writers (Ducray-Duminil),
and even religious writers (Phillips), a reflection of the principles of science and
theology that were broadly embraced during the Enlightenment. Some authors denied
that feral children were human at all (Monboddo concluded that they represented a
separate species). Others cited the lack of language, to name but one aspect of their
condition, as evidence that human children acquire language skills through human
intervention only (Itard).
At least some of these publications, or perhaps translations of them, probably
informed Traffieri and Vranitzký about the actions of feral children as they were
devising the various elements of their new ballet, for a few similarities between actual
reports of feral children and the ballet’s plot, as described on the playbill, are readily
apparent. For example, the playbill first mentions two young boys who had been
observed together in the Lithuanian countryside more than a century earlier. The
precise date of their original sighting is not known, but it fell between 1657 and 1669.
(Only secondary sources have survived, and the dates in those sources vary.) Only one
of the two boys was captured, at which time he was named Joseph. The story was
32
considered important enough to be recorded in the 1698 History of Poland by Bernard
Connor and John Savage.5 Extant descriptions of Joseph indicate that he was about nine
years old when he was captured. Rather than standing upright, he walked on all four
limbs in a curious animal-like gait. His captors took him to Warsaw, where he was
presented to the King of Poland. For the remaining years of his life Joseph was regarded
as a captive novelty, an object of tremendous curiosity. Although he eventually learned
to walk upright, eat cooked food, and wear clothing, he was never considered even
remotely capable of joining society as a free-thinking and independent person, for he
tried to escape frequently and was said to howl and cry ferociously whenever he caught
sight of open meadows or nearby forests. Like other feral children, he never acquired
language skills, despite repeated attempts to teach him . Notably, Traffieri’s ballet
depicts a mute forest maiden who is discovered by a Polish prince during a hunting trip.
Because the playbill specifically mentions a pair of boys from Lithuania, not just
one, it should be noted that there was a second child seen with Joseph prior to his
capture. That may be what is meant by “the pair of boys found in Lithuania.”
Alternatively, that remark may refer to the case of another wild boy who was captured
in the woods near Lietuva, Lithuania, several years later, in 1694. He was also named
Joseph by his captors. Eventually, Joseph acquired rudimentary language skills, an
indication that he may have known how to speak prior to his period of living in the
wild. His case was cited in 1746 by French author Etienne de Condillac in an essay on
the origins of human knowledge.6
Bernard Connor and John Savage, The History of Poland: in several letters to
persons of quality. Giving an account of the present state of that Kingdom, historical, political,
physical and ecclesiastical (London: D. Brown, A. Roper, and T. Leigh, 1698), 342–50.
5
This case is described on pages 131–33 of the 1756 English translation by a Mr.
Nugent of Condillac’s essay. See An Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge. Being a
supplement to Mr. Locke’s essay on the human understanding. Translated from the French of the
Abbè de Condillac, . . . by Mr. Nugent. London, 1756, English Short Title Catalogue .
Eighteenth Century Collections Online . Gale Group
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/ECCO (Accessed 31 October 2004). A modern
English translation of Condillac’s essay is “Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge,”
6
33
“The young girl found near Champagne” refers to Marie Angélique Memmie
LeBlanc, known also as “Memmie, the Maid of Châlons,” the wild girl of Champagne, or
the wild girl of Songy (or Songi).7 She was spotted one evening in September 1731 on the
streets of the village of Songy (or Songi), near Châlons in the Champagne region of
France. After scurrying up a tree to escape her pursuers, she had to be coerced down by
a local woman carrying an infant, who offered her food and drink and gestured in a
reassuring manner toward the frightened and hungry child. After Memmie descended
from her perch to accept the nourishment, she was captured by a group of men who had
been hiding nearby.
Memmie was about nine or ten years old. She was dressed in a large animal skin
that wrapped around her body and hung loosely about her knees. She also wore a
necklace, some pendants, and a pouch that contained both a club and a small knife
inscribed with strange unfamiliar characters. Her hair was filthy and matted, and she
had a dark-skinned appearance. After repeated bathings, Memmie’s caregivers
discovered that her skin had been painted black, a common practice of the slave trade.
Memmie was, in fact, a light-skinned child. Mute when captured, she learned to speak
French within a few years and was eventually able to describe to others in some detail
her ordeal of living in the forest. Memmie recalled, for example, that she had
accidentally injured and probably killed a younger female companion with whom she
had previously been observed. She also reported that she and the other girl had been
enslaved together on a large boat for at least two long journeys to what she referred to as
the “hot country,” possibly an ocean passage from Europe to the West Indies and back.
Cambridge Texts on the History of Philosophy , ed. Hans Aarsleff (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2001). The case of the second Lithuanian bear boy (1694) appears on
pages 88–89 of this translation.
Jean-Paul Denise’s article, "L'enfant sauvage de Songy," in Champagne Généalogie
No. 77, is a more recent investigation of the case. See also Brian A. Haughton and
Michael Newton, "Memmie LeBlanc—The Wild Girl of Champagne," Mysterious People
(Accessed 31 July 2004), http://www.mysteriouspeople.com .
7
34
Memmie recalled that she and the girl were freed when the boat began to sink
somewhere near the coast of France. She told of swimming ashore with the other girl
holding on to her leg. Indeed, according to her caregivers, Memmie was an incredibly
strong and agile swimmer, capable of catching fish with her bare hands. She said she
lived with the other girl in the woods for an undetermined amount of time, climbing
trees to hide and sleep in during daylight hours, then traveling, hunting, and eating at
night. She had used her club to fend off bears and other animals that chased after her.
Memmie’s caregivers often witnessed her uncanny ability to hunt small animals
and catch fish with or without tools. She had an extremely keen sense of smell, very
sensitive hearing, and keen vision, but her eyes tended to roll about in an odd manner.
She could imitate the sounds of birds with great accuracy. Sometime during her
domestication music was played for Memmie and she responded with delight, clapping
and dancing about gleefully. Memmie acquired fluency in French, and she also became
fully re-socialized in the ensuing years, coming of age in a series of convents. She
received unusual attention in the form of regular visits and generous financial support
in the form of pensions from French dignitaries, including the Viscount D’Epinoy, who
originally ordered her capture, and the Duke d’Orléans. Their attention was closely
followed in the press, since Memmie, like most captured feral children, continued to be
regarded as an object of great curiousity for the rest of her life. As late as 1765 she was
still living in Paris. The year of her death is unknown. Memmie’s life was vividly
described in an anononymous book published in 1755 and entitled Histoire d’une jeune
fille sauvage trouvée dans les bois à l'âge de dix ans.8
The “wild one from Hannover” refers to one of the most sensational and widelyreported cases of a feral child reported in the eighteenth century. “Wild Peter” had been
found living alone in the woods of Hameln (or Hamelin) in Lower Saxony near
Anonymous, Histoire d'une jeune fille sauvage trouvée dans les bois à l'âge de dix ans
(Paris: n. p., 1755, 1761), since attributed to Madame Hecquet (n. d.) and Charles-Marie
La Condamine (1701–1774).
8
35
Hannover, on 27 July 1724.9 He was about 12 years old when captured, did not speak ,
and would eat only vegetables, grass, the juice of green stalks, and occasional bits of
bread. There were rumors that Peter was born dumb or retarded, and that his father
had abandoned him in the local woods. He received an inordinate amount of attention
after his capture. In February 1726 King George I of England, also the reigning Elector
of Hannover, insisted that Wild Peter be transported to London. He then gave the boy
to his wife, Queen Caroline, Princess of Wales, who intended to keep him as a pet. For a
short time Peter actually lived in a designated suite of rooms in the royal palace, but
within two months his crude behaviors had disgusted the queen. She then “loaned”
Peter to Dr. John Arbuthnot (1667–1735), an influential royal physician, mathematician,
and writer. Arbuthnot carefully observed the boy’s actions, recording that Peter
“seemed to have a taste for music, and would hum over with satisfaction tunes of all
kinds which he often heard.” But although the child delighted at the tones a piano could
produce, he seemed quite afraid actually to touch the keyboard. Nor did he seem to
understand that the musical tones were produced by depressing the keys.
Unlike Memmie, Peter never developed language skills. Aside from his guttural
grunts and snarls, he learned only to imitate a few names rather crudely, addressing
King George as "ki scho" and Queen Caroline as "qui ca." The European public clamored
for reports of Wild Peter’s activities, even after Dr. Arbuthnot persuaded the Queen to
place Peter in the permanent care of her chamber maid, Mrs. Titchbourne.10 In exchange
for a handsome pension given by the Queen to Mrs. Titchbourne on Peter’s behalf, the
chamber maid helped arrange for a farmer named Mr. James Fenn to mind Peter at his
farmhouse at Axter’s End, near London. At some point, Peter, who was prone to
The case of “Wild Peter” is more fully examined in D. K. Candland, Feral
Children and Clever Animals: Reflections on Human Nature (London: Oxford University
Press, 1993).
9
A full account of Peter’s life was printed in TheAnnual Register, or a View of the
History, Politics, and Literature, for the Years 1784 and 1785 (London: n. p., 1787), 43–45.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online . Gale Group.
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/ECCO Accessed 18 November 2004.
10
36
wandering long distances, was fitted with a leather collar around his neck on which his
name had been engraved and instructions for him to be returned unharmed for a reward
by anyone who might find him. When Mr. Fenn died, his brother Thomas assumed
responsibility for Peter’s well-being, along with the government pension. Peter was
moved to Thomas’s farmhouse, which was called Broadway. After Thomas’s death
Peter remained at Broadway for many years, cared for by a series of tenants. Peter died
there on 22 February 1785 at the age of seventy-two (approximately), still quite famous
throughout Europe. He was buried in the graveyard of the North Church of County
Hertford.
Dr. Arbuthnot has been credited for an anonymous and compassionate poem
titled “The Savage.” It was published in 1726 as part of a popular anthology of English
poems. It poignantly illustrates the concerns of one who has sympathetically
contemplated Wild Peter’s fate:
The SAVAGE; occasion’d by
the bringing to Court of a Wild youth,
taken in the Woods near Germany in the year 1725
Ye Courtiers, who the blessings know
From Sweet society that flow,
Adorned with each politer Grace
Above the rest of human Race,
Receive this Youth unformed, untaught,
From solitary Deserts brought,
To brutish Converse long confined,
Wild, and a Stranger to his Kind:
Receive him, and with tender Care,
For Reason’s use his Mind Prepare;
Shew him in Words his Thoughts to dress
To think, and what he thinks express;
His Manners form, his Conduct plan,
And civilize him into Man.
But with false alluring Smile
If you teach him to beguile;
If with Language soft and fair
You instruct him to ensnare,
If to foul and brutal vice,
Envy, Pride, or Avarice,
37
Tend the Precepts you lmpart;
If you taint his spotless Heart,
Speechless send him back agen,
To the Woods of Hamelen;
Still in Deserts let him stray,
As his Choice directs his Way;
Let him still a Rover be,
Still be innocent and free.
He, whose lustful, lawless Mind
Is to Reason’s Guidance blind,
Ever slavish to obey
Each imperious Passion’s sway,
Smooth and Courtly though he be,
He’s the Savage, only He.
The peculiar characteristics of feral children challenged the existing scientific
classification systems for humans. Consequently, both Wild Peter and Memmie were
cited in several important writings that pondered the true nature of humankind. In
1758, pioneering biological taxonomist Carl Linnæus reviewed their case histories along
with historical reports of several other feral children, many of whom were found cohabitating with animals. He cites a wolf-boy from Hesse (1344), a calf-boy from
Bamberg (16th century), a young man named Jean de Liège (17th century), the
Lithuanian bear-boy (which he dated 1661), an Irish sheep-boy (1672), and two boys
observed in the French Pyrenees, one of whom had been captured (1719).11 Linnæus
determined that feral children must be a separate species of human being, which he
named Homo ferens and described as a mute quadruped covered with hair. His theory
provoked continued discussions on the matter. At about the same time that a book was
being published about Memmie’s life, French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–
1778) published one of his most important works, Discours sur l’origine et les fondements
de l’inegalite parmi les hommes (Discourse on the Origins of Inequality ).12 Writing
11
Carl Linnæus: Systema naturae (10th edition, 1758).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inegalite parmi
les hommes (Geneva: Marc Michel Rey, 1755).
12
38
hypothetically about the natural state of humankind, Rosseau lamented that the dignity,
grace, and vitality of indigenous cultures, however crude their behaviors might appear,
were sadly absent from humans subjected to the sophisticated trappings of
contemporary society. Scottish judge and early anthropologist James Burnett, Lord
Monboddo (1714–1799), who met personally with Memmie on several occasions,
believed that Memmie and Wild Peter should not be regarded as examples of mankind’s
“natural state,” but rather as midpoints on a continuum that represented “a brief
chronicle or abstract of the progress of human nature, from the mere animal to the first
stage of civilized life.” In other words, Burnett regarded them as missing links, remnants
of an older and less-developed species of man. Such theories as these underscore the
great attention paid to these unusual children by eighteenth-century intellectuals and
the general public.
It is possible that additional, more recent cases of feral children, beyond those
cited on the playbill, could have influenced the plot to Das Waldmädchen in some way, or
provided additional ideas for its sets, characters, and the types of events that would be
portrayed on the stage. For example, a nearly adult “bear girl” had been discovered by
a hunting party in 1767 in a cave near the village of Fraumark in lower Hungary (known
today as Krupina, Slovakia). Unable to speak, she spent her remaining years in an
asylum. Around 1780 a “wolf boy” had been discovered amidst a wolf pack near the
Siebenburgen-Wallachischen border (now Romania). He appeared to be in his early
twenties, was completely devoid of language and social skills, and walked on all fours
when captured. The “wolf boy” was taken to Kronstadt (now Brasov, Roumania),
where attempts were made to teach him basic social skills and language, for which he
showed neither interest nor capacity. A scientific description of his condition was
recorded in 1784, but no subsequent descriptions have survived.
One final and particularly timely series of events must be noted at this point
before continuing with the discussion of Wranitzky’s ballet. In 1796 French author
François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil (1761–1819) published Victor, ou l’enfant de la forêt, a
fictional tale about a feral boy that was subsequently used as the basis for a
39
melodramatic play by René-Charles-Guilbert de Pixérécourt (1773–1844).13 Remarkably,
a child described as a “brownish, naked boy” was captured near Lacaune, France, in
spring of 1798.14 His subsequent escape provoked tremendous interest in his
whereabouts and condition. The boy, who had apparently been living alone in the
forests of the region for several years, was captured a second time on 9 January 1800
near Saint-Sernin, which is also known as Aveyron. His captors named him Victor, and
he was placed in the care of a local man while medical officials in Paris contemplated his
future care, evaluation, and rehabilitation. Victor was transported to Paris several
months later, arriving in that city on the evening of 18 August 1800. The child was then
placed into the care of Dr. Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard (1775–1838), a specialist in the care
of deaf-mutes. Victor became the subject of a medical/scientific experiment intended to
help him acquire more civilized behaviors, including speech. At first, the boy received
visits from curiosity seekers, but because he was frequently subjected to cruel jests, most
such visits had to be curtailed. Quickly, he became the talk of Europe, even in the midst
of the Napoleonic wars. In Table 2.1 each of the post-1796 entries by Itard, the physician
who supervised the boy’s care at Paris, refers to Victor specifically.
The story of a similarly mysterious forest maiden discovered by a Polish prince
was clearly a provocative, well-chosen subject for a new pantomime-ballet. Viennese
pantomime-ballets of the period were fairly lengthy, independent stage work s, usually
longer than one act, that combined the long-standing Viennese tradition of comic
pantomime with ballet and more serious plot elements.15 Action unfolded in a series of
discrete scenes, each of which was signaled by the entrances and exits of a dancer or
dancers, by a sudden change in the character of the music, or both. Thus, the physical
characteristics of a mute forest maiden, which might have included an odd gait, tattered
Roger Shattuck, The Forbidden Experiment: The Story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron
(New York: Kondosha International, 1980, reprint 1994), 61. Hereafter, Shattuck, Victor .
13
14
Shattuck, Victor , 64.
15
Peter Branscombe, “Pantomime,” Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed
19 August 2003), http://www.grovemusic.com. Hereafter, Branscombe, “Pantomime.”
40
garments of skins or leaves, peculiar facial expressions, or any number of unusual
physical characteristics, along with the reactions of various more “civilized” characters
toward her, could be convincingly portrayed through clever choreography in
combination with standard pantomime gestures, music, sets, costumes, and scenery.
The orchestral score to Vraniczý’s Das Waldmädchen has not survived, but the
music from the ballet has been preserved in the form of transcriptions for keyboard
instruments or small mixed ensembles. Several complete transcriptions, along with the
first violin part to the original score, are housed at the music department of the
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.16 Other transcriptions are housed at Prague’s Czech
Museum of Music and in various private collections.17
The standard arrangement of numbers in late eighteenth-century Viennese
pantomime-ballet is an opening S infonia followed by a series of contrasting instrumental
dances (usually between ten and twenty-five in number), most of which were in binary
form and untitled except for tempo markings, and a final contredanse generale that
showcased the entire cast. Das Waldmädchen follows that basic outline, beginning with a
Sinfonia in D major. The first 70 measures are in cut time (alla breve ), followed by a
fermata that segues directly into the second section, a 32-measure Polonaise (also in D
major). This Polish dance helps to establish the nationality of the prince who discovers
the forest maiden. A fermata separates the end of the Polonaise from the last section of
the Sinfonia, which is again in cut time. During those 69 measures (still in D major)
thematic material from the opening section returns, with the final 20 bars form ing a
coda. Twenty-nine separate instrumental numbers follow, the majority of which are in
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, S. M. 11009. S. M. 11374 is a score to the
Polonaise from Das Waldmädchen that was published separately.
16
The Czech Museum of Music is a branch of the National Museum of the Czech
Republic. Following a devastating flood in 2002, much of the collection was lost or
damaged. The remaining documents had to be moved and reordered. Although the
new facility was still not open to the public during my visit in June 2004, I met with Dr.
Markéta Kabelková, who allowed me to survey the card catalogue and study several
scores, including what appeared to be an autograph of a piano transcription of the
ballet.
17
41
binary form. Most are identified by tempo markings only (allegretto, maestoso , andante,
allegro, etc.), although some include additional details. No. 22, in F major and 2/4 time, is
marked Cosacca, allegro non troppo. No. 25 is a Pas de Deux (Andantino , in D major and in
cut time). No. 26, Polonaise, is an expanded treatment (100 bars) of the same polonaise in
the middle section of the Sinfonia, but this time in the key of B? major. It returns again
in No. 29, Polonaise (in B? major), and is followed 21 bars later by No. 30, Mazur , in 3/8
meter (F major). The ballet concludes with No. 31, a Contretanz.
Court ballet productions were performed by trained ballet company members
who danced and mimed. Casts were also augmented with other performers (including
actors from the court theater company) who merely mimed. The trained dancers tended
to specialize in either serious roles, character roles, or crowd-pleasing grotesque roles that
showcased their exceptional physical dexterity and strength. Presumably, a
choreographer such as Traffieri would first consider the technical and expressive
abilities of the various company members and then develop the sequence of ballet
numbers, determining appropriate musical numbers in collaboration with the composer.
Das Waldmädchen was extremely popular with the Viennese public. Following its
premiere on 23 September 1796 it was performed again at the Kärntnerthortheater only
two days later (25 September 1796). According to extant playbills it was presented
frequently at both the Burgtheater and the Kärntnerthortheater during the next several
years, becoming one of the most frequently performed stage work s in Vienna at the
time. There were sixteen performances of Das Waldmädchen in 1796, twenty-four in 1797,
fifteen in 1798, seven in 1799, fourteen in 1800, and at least two in 1801. Beethoven’s 12
Piano Variations, WoO71, composed in 1796–97, were based on the “thème russe” (No.
22, Cossaca ) from this ballet.18 And, as already noted, Wranitzky produced and
The theme itself should be credited to the famous Italian violinist Giovanni
Mare Giornovichi (1747–1804), a rival of Viotti. As a violinist, Wranitzky was familiar
with Giornovichi’s music. Beethoven and Wranitzky enjoyed a close personal
relationship and professional admiration for one another. See Chappell White,
“Giornovichi, Giovanni [Jarnovic, Jarnovicki, Jarnowick; Ivan] Mane,” Grove Music
Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 31 July 2004]), http://www.grovemusic.com . Poštolka and
Hickman, “Wranitzky.”
18
42
published numerous transcriptions of his music for the ballet, all of which sold handily.
These included versions of Das Waldmädchen for piano solo, piano four hands, violin and
piano, string quartet, harmonium, and other small ensembles. Arrangements were
widely disseminated as the ballet gained popularity at new venues in other cities.
Examples now housed in the Czech Museum of Music (Ceské muzeum hudby
reditelství) in Prague include:
Table 2.2
Music from Wranitzky’s Das Waldmädchen in the
Catalogue of the Czech Museum of Music
SHELF
NUMBER
TITLE/SUBTITLE
INSTRUMENTATION
TYPE OF SOURCE
XVI A 16519
Das Waldmädchen:
Ein pantomimisches
National-Ballet
iano
Printed edition
(Vienna: Mollo)
XXVIII A 277
Ballo . “Das Wald
Mädchen”
2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2
horns, 2 bassoons
Manuscript
XXVII C 15
Der Jagd mit dem
Ballet Das
Waldmädchen
Piano
Manuscript
XXVII C 39
Groteski fürs Klavier Piano
aus der Ballet Das
Waldmädchen
Printed edition (n. p.)
The cover offers the following attribution: In Musick gesetzt von Herrn Paul
Wranitsky und Joseph Kinsky. The attribution to Joseph Kinsky is unexplained. Prince
Joseph Kinsky (1750–1798), a member of the Moravian nobility, was a patron to
Wranitzky and other Moravian and Czech musicians in Vienna. He maintained palaces
in both Vienna and Prague. His son, Count Ferdinand Johann Nepomuk Kinsky,
became one of Beethoven’s important patrons in 1809.
19
43
SHELF
NUMBER
TITLE/SUBTITLE
INSTRUMENTATION
TYPE OF SOURCE
XLI D 210
Das Waldmädchen.
Ein Ballet vom . . .
Paul Wranitzky
Piano
Printed edition (n. p.)
XLI D 322
Das Waldmädchen
2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2
horns, 2 bassoons
Printed edition (n. p.,
1800)
XLII E 110
D. Wald-Mädchen:
Pas de Deux
Clavi-Cembalo
Manuscript
The various titles (Ein pantominisches National-Ballet), along with the variety of
instrumentation illustrate the popularity of the music from Traffieri’s stage work. The
number of productions of this popular pantomime-ballet at cities other than Vienna
increased steadily, along with the demand for arrangements of music from Wranitzky’s
popular score. See Appendix B for a list of Das Waldmädchen performances. In general,
the transmission of Wranitzky’s ballet to various smaller European cities can be
attributed to two factors. The first was Wandertruppen, the traveling German theater
companies of the period who produced their own versions of Vienna’s most popular
stage works at public theater houses throughout the German-speaking regions of
Europe. Steinsberg’s company was such a troupe. Second, a large percentage of dance
repertoire was disseminated by solo dancers from Vienna who accepted appointments
with newly formed ballet companies in other cities. By choreographing a new version of
a ballet that was already popular in Vienna, a newly hired dancer could easily attract
audiences to ballet venues in the new city. Indeed, that is precisely how the ballet Das
Waldmädchen first migrated from Vienna to Prague.
In 1798 Viennese court ballet member Giocomo Brunetti accepted an invitation to
go to Prague to join the ballet company at the Theater of the Estates (formerly known as
44
Count Nostitz’s Theater, or Nostická scéna ). This was the city’s most important theater,
the same venue in which Mozart’s Don Giovanni had premiered in 1787. Built between
1781 and 1783 for Bohemian nobleman František Antonín Count Nostitz Rieneck, the
theater (referred to as the National Theater in some sources) was renamed early in 1798,
when it was sold to the Bohemian estates, an influential group of German nobles who
lived in Bohemia, as a condition of Count Nostitz Rieneck’s will. Members of the
governing Bohemian estates, with input from Prague’s long-established theater director
and impressario, Domenico Guardisoni, made several far-reaching policy changes that
year, one of which was to establish a ballet company in Prague. Guardisoni had
persuaded Brunetti to leave his position in Vienna to come and lead the new company.
Brunetti brought at least two other Viennese dancers to Prague with him: his young wife
Therese Brunetti (née Frey), a singer, actress, and dancer; and M lle Venturini, a solo
ballerina. According to Theater und Litteratur, “audiences were treated for the first time
to a new adaptation made especially for this theater of the comic ballet Das Waldmädchen
by Hr. Brunetti, with M lle Venturini in the title role” on 28 May 1798, between acts of a
two-act Singspiel called Der Kammerhusar.20
“Den 28ten May zum erstenmal (mit Abonnement suspendu) der
Kammerhusar, ein Sch. in 2. A., zum Beschluß ein neues, von Hrn. Brunetti für dieses
Theater adaptirtes komisches Ballet: das Waldm ädchen, worin Dlle Venturini in dem
Hauptkarakter zum erstenmal hier auftrat.” Theater und Litteratur , 9 (Prague, 14 June
1798), 221.
20
45
CHAPTER 3
STEINSBERG AND HIS COMPANY
Steinsberg
Karl Franz Guolfinger, Ritter von Steinsberg (c. 1757–1806), hereafter referred to
as Steinsberg, wrote the libretto to, produced, performed in, and provided stage
direction for the premiere of Weber’s Das Waldmädchen in 1800.1 Steinsberg’s role as the
young composer’s first operatic collaborator is undisputed, yet relatively little
information about his career can be gleaned from the existing corpus of Weber
scholarship. Confusion about Steinsberg’s name may have caused this lacuna, at least
partly, for it appears in several different versions throughout primary and secondary
source materials from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Steinsberg is
most frequently cited as either “Karl Guolfinger, Ritter von Steinsberg,” or “Karl von
Steinsberg.” However, he is also cited as: Chevalier de Steinsberg; Carl, Ritter von
Steinsberg; Fr. Gudfinger, Ritter von Steinsberg; Carl von Steinsberg; F. G. Quolfinger,
Ritter von Steinberg, and Franz Guolfinger von Steinsberg. Of those names, Gudfinger
and Quolfinger are obvious errors.2 The other versions appear to be variant spellings,
Steinsberg (Karl Franz Guolfinger, Ritter von Steinsberg) should not be
confused with Karl Steinsberg (born in Breslau on 10 November 1755), the deputy
theater director at Königsburg. Friedrich Rassmann, Pantheon deutscher jeßt lebender
Dichter und in die Belletristik eingreifender Schriftsteller; begleitet mit kurzen biographischen
Notizen und der wichtigsten Literatur (Helmstedt: C. G. Fleckeisensch, 1823), 326.
1
In the former, “Gudfinger” results if the third and fourth letters of Gu[ol]fingerare mistaken for the letter [d]. In the latter, the [G] of Guolfinger appears to have been
mistaken for a [Q].
2
46
reflecting Steinsberg’s extensive professional activities at geographically diverse
locations, for he frequently toured with theater companies.
According to Adolf Scherl, an expert on Czech theater history who has done
extensive research on this individual, Steinsberg’s birth name was probably Karel
František Guolfinger, the Germanized spelling of which is Karl Franz Guolfinger. The
suffix “Ritter von Steinsberg” was probably used as a stage name. 3 In his own scholarly
work Scherl refers to Steinsberg by the name he used professionally, as “Karl Franz
Guolfinger von Steinsberg.” Scherl also contends that Steinsberg occasionally used the
pseudonym of “Karl Rosenau.”4
Steinsberg earned his living primarily as an actor, theater manager, and
playwright.5 Most of his written works were published in Prague from the late 1770s to
1798. Later editions of Steinsberg’s works were also published in Berlin, Vienna,
Personal conversation with Adolf Scherl at Divadelní ústav (Theater Institute),
Prague, Czech Republic, 2 June 2004. Scherl originally believed that Steinsberg might be
a descendent of Alexandra Guolfingerova von Steinsberga, a seventeenth-century Czech
noblewoman. Scherl, “Steinsberg,” 126–27. Through subsequent research, Scherl has
since concluded that Steinsberg’s birth name was probably Karl Franz Guolfinger. His
conclusion is based on evidence from archival records that, although not conclusive, was
consistent with that possibility. (I did not personally examine that evidence.) Dr.
Scherl’s scholarly expertise is highly regarded by German and Czech music and theater
scholars. He remains the foremost authority on Steinsberg. I am greatly indebted to Dr.
Scherl for his generous assistance and guidance while I was conducting my own
research on Steinsberg and Czech theater history in Prague.
3
4
Scherl, “Steinsberg,” 126.
Scherl, “Steinsberg,” 126; Oscar Teuber, Geschichte des Prager Theaters: von den
Anfängen des Schauspielwesens bis auf die neueste Zeit (Prague: A. Haase, 1883–88), 3 vols.;
hereafter, Teuber; and Constant von Wurzbach, Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums
Österreich , 60 vols. (Vienna: K. K. Hof-und Staatsdruckerei, 1879), 38: 152–59, hereafter
Wurzbach, “Steinsberg.” Stebbins cites Wurzbach’s entry on Weber in volume 53
(Wurzbach, 53: 202–10) but fails to cite Wurzbach’s lengthier entry for Steinsberg in
volume 38. Stebbins, Weber, 321. See also, Hans Giebisch and Gustav Gugitz, BioBibliographisches Literaturlexikon Österreichs von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (Vienna:
Brüder Hollinek, 1964), 400; hereafter Giebisch/Gugitz.
5
47
Amsterdam, Paris (in French), and London (in English). He enjoyed a somewhat
celebrated career as a theater professional, receiving accolades for the quality of his
acting, singing, writing, comic improvisation, stage direction, and effective theater
company management skills.
As a playwright Steinsberg authored tragedies, comedies, historical plays, and
opera libretti, some of which celebrated Bohemian folk legends and actual historical
events. These would have been controversial topics, since expressions of Czech
nationalism were not encouraged by the ruling Germanized nobility of Bohemia.
Steinsberg was also an outspoken critic of many of the reforms of Joseph II, including
the Edict of Tolerance. After its implementation (13 October 1781) Steinsberg
established and edited a series of political pamphlets called Predigkritik (preacher critic)
and Die Geißel der Prediger (Scourge of the Preachers).6 The pamphlets were part of a
critical campaign against certain aspects of the emperor’s reforms. For example, one of
Steinsberg’s pamphlets from 1783 criticizes Count Kolovrat-Krakovsky, the district
administrator of the Rakovnik region, for dissolving a Premonstratensian convent at
Doksany. 7 In 1784 Steinsberg published Offenbarungen über Deutschland (Revelations
6
Teuber, 2: 320.
Doksany was founded around 1144 by Bohemian Princess Gertruda and Prince
Vladislav II. Building upon the 1749 administrative reforms of Maria Theresa, Joseph II
espoused the principle of usefulness during his reign, enacting sweeping reforms in law,
education, administration, and culture, many of which strictly limited the sphere of
influence of the Catholic Church. As a result Catholic cloisters, like the convent at
Doksany, were dissolved unless they operated schools and libraries that would serve the
community at large. Steinsberg seems to have rallied area clergy members to speak out
against Joseph’s 1781 Edict of Tolerance. In spite of Steinsberg’s protests, the convent at
Doksany was closed and its living quarters were converted into a manor house; other
convents and monasteries faced a similar fate in the 1780s, and most were converted into
factories, theaters, libraries, schools, or other non-religious facilities, or simply
abandoned. An extant copy of Steinsberg’s pamphlet from 1783 has been offered for
sale in Prague by the firm Antivariát Meissner. The document is described as a “Rare
pamphlet by the Bohemian playwright and theatre director F. Guolfinger von Steinsberg
sharply attacking Count Kolovrat-Krakovsky, district administrator of the Rakovnik
region, for dissolving the convent at Doksany; place of publishing fake, probably
7
48
about Germany), a collection of moral conversations and short stories that mocked
members of the Bavarian nobility and commented on political and theatrical conditions
in Augsburg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Leipzig, and Prague.8 The book was banned.
Steinsberg was forced to flee from Prague to avoid being arrested.9 Although the book
was attributed to a publisher in Amsterdam, it had actually been published at Prague by
Johann Ferdinand, Ritter von Schönfeld (1750–1821), Steinsberg’s publisher.10 That same
year Steinsberg (again with Schönfeld) published a two-act play called Der 42jä hrige Affe:
ein ganz vermaledeites Märchen! (The Forty-two-year-old-Ape: an entirely accursed Fairy
Tale). It was a scathing critique of the emperor, only thinly disguised as a satire on
Voltaire.11 Understandably, Steinsberg’s writings caused considerable uneasiness
among Prague’s prominent citizenry, and he frequently angered the Bohemian nobility
Nuremberg.” The catalogue description can be viewed at
http://www.meissner.cz/meissner/search.html, accessed 20 January 2005.
It was published anonymously, but has since been attributed to Steinsberg. A
copy of this book is currently in the possession of the Antiquarian firm of Wolfgang
Braecklein of Berlin. The catalogue description can be viewed at
http://www.zvab.com/SESSz171055689311107041538/gr2/de/index.html?ts=gratzen&ter
m=steinsberg, accessed 20 January 2005.
8
His flight from Prague probably occurred in 1784. In 1783 he published a
pamphlet sharply criticizing Count Kolovrat-Krakovsky, district administrator of the
Rakovnik region, for dissolving the convent at Doksany. See Wurzbach, “Steinsberg,”
384.
9
Schönfeld is well known among German and Czech theater scholars as the
author and publisher of Jahrbuch der Tonkunst von Wien und Prag (Vienna: Schönfeld,
1796).
10
Der 42jährige Affe: ein ganz vermaledeites Märchen! ([Prague: Schönfeld, n.d.]
Berlin: 1784). Wurzbach, 38: 158. See also, Teuber, 2: 320. Joseph’s mother, MariaTheresa, had worked to improve the administration of the Bohemian Kingdom by
opposing regional privileges and the rights of the Bohemian estates. Preferring to rule
through a centrally controlled imperial bureaucracy, the ruling mother and son
instituted reforms to eliminate the repressive features of the Counter-Reformation and to
permit secular social progress.
11
49
(commonly referred to as the Bohemian estates). Many members of the estates felt it
necessary to publish position statements in the form of essays, pamphlets, and articles,
to publicly distance themselves from Steinsberg.12 His reputation as a theatrical
professional must has been sufficient for him to be forgiven, however, because he
returned to Prague and maintained a prominent theatrical presence in that city until
1798.
As a writer Steinsberg appears to have been in step with the theatrical trends of
the day, not only in Bohemia, but also in other parts of the continent (see Table 3.1
below). His five-act tragedy Otto von Wittelsbach , for example, was published in both
German (1783, 1784, 1789) and French (1785). Similarly, his three-act drama Miss Nelly
Randolph , originally written in German and published in Prague, 1781, also appears to
have found audiences in England. A second German edition was printed in 1781 and a
third edition, in English, was published in London in 1798. He also wrote at least three
comic opera lib retti prior to his collaboration with Weber in 1800. Those stage works
clearly reveal Steinsberg’s Bohemian pride, as well as his opposition to censorship laws.
All three (an original and two sequels) feature a comic character named Honzou
Kolonátem (Ger., Hanns Klachl), a Bohemian version of the popular Hanswurst
character that was banned in Austria and elsewhere.13 The stage works (Singspiels)
were performed at Prague’s Nostitz Theater (Nationaltheater in some sources) and
Hibernium Theaters (Nostická scéna and divadle U Hybernu) between 1796 and 1798.
Wurzbach includes a fairly extensive list of essays or articles that were
published for this purpose. See Wurzbach, “Steinsberg,” 158–59.
12
Hanswurst was a buffoonish character who regularly turned up in productions
of Viennese popular theatre and also with touring companies. The character made
extemporaneous comments and base remarks, frequently resorted to fistfights, and was
generally regarded as the personification of bad taste. Such burlesque antics had
prompted Maria Theresa, who sought to elevate German theater, to implement
censorship laws in the 1750s. Steinsberg strongly opposed censorship. His Hanns Klachl
character would have been recognized by most audiences as a Czech version of the
Hanswurst character.
13
50
Table 3.1
Partial List of Karl Ritter von Steinsberg’s Works14
CITY/PUBLISHER/YEAR
TITLE
DESCRIPTION
Prague, n. p., 1777
Jemelian Pugatscheff
Premiered at the Kotzen
Theater, Prague15
Prague: J.J. Gröbl, 1779
Libussa, Herzogen in Böhmen
(Libuša)
Trauerspiel; premiered at
the Kotzen Theater,
Prague16
Prague, 1781; 2nd ed,
n. d.; 3rd ed., 1798 (in
English)
Miss Nelly Randolph
Trauerspiel, in 3 acts
Prague, 1781, or earlier
Albrecht von Waldstein
Prague: Mangoldt, 1781;
2nd ed., 1798
Der Patriotismus
Berlin, 1783;
2nd ed., 1784;
Paris, 1785 (in French);
Berlin: Hamburg, 1789
Otto von Wittelsbach
Trauerspiel, in 5 acts;
1785 French version
attributed to Joseph
Marius Babo, A. C.
Friedel, Nicolas de
Bonneville, and
Chevalier de Steinsberg
Amsterdam, 1784
Offenbarungen über Deutschland
Originally published
anonymously
Works are in German unless otherwise indicated. Teuber describes several of
these titles. See Teuber, 2: 320.
14
15
Scherl, “Steinsberg,” 126.
16
Ibid.
51
CITY/PUBLISHER/YEAR
TITLE
DESCRIPTION
1784, Prague: Schonfield;
1786, Berlin
Der 42jährige Affe : ein ganz
vermaledeites Märchen!
In two acts; a critique of
Joseph II disguised as a
satire on Voltaire
1796, Prague
Hanns Klachl von Przelautsch, oder German and Czech;
Das Rendezvous in der neuen Allee Comic Singspiel, in 2
(Honza Kolonat z prelouce)
acts, music by Vincenc
Tucek
1797, Prague
Die zwei Klacheln von Przelautsch
(also called Die beiden Dacheln, or
Hans Klachel, Der Bräutigam von
Kakran)
German and Czech;
Comic Singspiel, in 2
acts; sequel to Hanns
Klachl; music by Vincenc
Tucek
1798, Prague and
Leipzig
Die Hochzeit auf dem Lande, oder
Hanns Klachel, Dritter Theil
Singspiel, music by
Anton Volánek
Vienna, 179517
Die Grafen Helfenfels, oder Ritter
Starkenerg18
Ritterschauspiel, in 4 acts
1800, or earlier
Liebe die Nebenmenschen19
Schauspiel
1800, or earlier
Die gute Laune20
Schauspiel
1800, or earlier
Die Rückkehr in’s Vaterhaus21
Schauspiel
17
Ibid.
18
Ibid.
19
Wurzbach, “Steinsberg,” 158–59.
20
Ibid.
21
Ibid.
52
Max Maria von Weber describes Steinsberg as “a man of the times, not without
writing talent, a good dialogue actor who influenced the sphere of repertoire on all
[German] stages not only through Iffland and Kotzebue but also by virtue of his own
authority and example as a good manager and director.”22 In part, this is because from
1798, Steinsberg’s career was closely aligned with an important group of actors, singers,
and dancers from Prague. The history of that organization follows.
Prague’s vaterländische Gesellschaft
In the 1790s Steinsberg became closely associated with Prague’s vaterländische
Gesellschaft, also known as the Vlastenské divadlo (literally, the patriotic theater). This was
an influential group of mostly Czech-born actors who performed both German- and
Czech-language stage works. Some sources refer to the vaterländische Gesellschaft as the
vaterländisches Theater , or the Patriotic Theater.23 In Czech sources the troupe is also
identified as the Vlastenskeho divadle U Hybernu (referring to the company’s theater space
from 1789–98, the converted library of a dissolved cloister of Irish Franciscans, or
“Hibernians”). During the 1790s m embers of the vaterländische Gesellschaft worked at the
two most important theatrical venues in Prague, the Nostitz (Estates) Theater and the
Hibernium Theater. Most members of this group, like Steinsberg himself, were ardent
Czech nationalists.
The company was established in 1784 as the original German troupe at Count
Nostitz’s new theater. During their first season (1784–85), the troupe independently
22
MMW, 57.
Tyrell refers to them as the Patriotic Theater. Czech Opera , 16–19. Archival
sources list the company as the vaterländ ische Gesellschaft, the term used in this
document.
23
53
produced four Czech-language plays, each of which was well attended.24 However,
certain members of the German nobility objected to the use of the Czech language on a
public stage, and subsequently exerted sufficient pressure on Pasquale Bondini, the
original business manager of the Nostitz Theater, that he dismissed the troupe at the end
of the season.25 Rather than disband, the actors decided to continue working together as
an independent company.
They petitioned Joseph II for a royal privilege, asking also for permission to build
a makeshift wooden theater (a Bouda or “cottage”) in Prague’s horse market district, not
far from the Nostitz Theater.26 After several petitions, they were granted a royal
privilege in 1786, identifying them as the Imperial Czech National Theater, or the
vaterländische Gesellschaft.27 They constructed a long and narrow wooden structure,
known simply as the Bouda , and opened to the general public on 8 July 1786.28 The
troupe presented Czech-language stage works (spoken plays and Singspiels), as well as
ballets. German-language stage works formed the bulk of their repertoire, however,
because so few original Czech works existed. Some m embers of the troupe translated
popular German repertoire into Czech.
The first Czech production by this company was presented at the Nostitz
Theater on 20 January 1785. It was a translation of Bohumil Stephanie’s Der Deserteur
aus Kindesliebe. Czech-language productions, considered rare at the time, had not been
offered in Prague since the early 1770s. Those early efforts had failed largely due to the
actors’ unfamiliarity with the Czech language. However, the Czech-born members of
the German troupe at the Kotzen Theater were more adept with the language. Their
four productions were enthusiastically received and well attended. Arthur Prudden
Coleman, Kotzebue and the Czech Stage (Schenectady, NY: Electric City Press, 1936), 8–15.
Hereafter, Prudden, Czech Stage .
24
Peter Branscombe, “Bondini, Pasquale,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians, 2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2001), 3: 852–53.
25
26
This area is known as Wenceslas Square (Václavské námestí).
27
Prudden, Czech Stage, 12–13.
28
Prudden, Czech Stage, 12. Teuber, 1: 167.
54
Their productions were immediately popular. On 19 September 1786 Joseph II
himself, accompanied by several members of the German nobility, attended a
performance at the Bouda . The performance included a Czech version of Emmanuel
Schikaneder’s comic Singspiel Die Lyranten, oder das lustige Elend, paired with an original
ballet. The Emperor honored the performers by insisting that he pay the 30 ducats
required for his admission.29
German actors became jealous of the company’s success. They published notices
about the Bouda . Superficially polite, the commentary criticized the quality of the acting
and the nature of the Czech repertoire, hinting also that the low cost of tickets and the
presence of so many attractive young ladies of the lower classes created an unsavory
environment that would be quite popular for some tim e. The following notice,
published on 10 November 1787 in Ephemerid , a local newspaper, is one example:
The society of Czech actors that calls itself the company of patriots, is
putting on badly some plays, mostly crude ones, from their national
history . . . . The company of Patriots has a large building at the Horse
Market which they always fill. The low price of tickets, the presence of so
many pretty girls of the bourgeoise , and various other similar causes gives
the hope that it will hold out for a long time yet.30
Members of the Bohemian Estates were similarly disgruntled by the success of
the Czech company. They regarded the Bouda was an offensive looking building, and
argued that the presence of so many people at the theater interfered with the more
important business of the horse market.31 Attendance at the Bouda declined steadily, and
in August 1789 the building was demolished.32
29
Teuber, 1:171
30
Prudden, Czech Stage, 13–14. Tyrell, Czech Opera , 17–18.
31
Prudden, Czech Stage, 14.
32
Ibid.
55
Determined to continue their work, the vaterländische Gesellschaft was reestablished in 1789. The company leased an abandoned cloister and converted it into a
comfortable theater, paying 1800 florins for the necessary renovations.33 The new facility
had 34 loges and adequate space for a full Singspiel orchestra.34 Baron Sweert-Spork, a
member of the Bohemian Estates who championed their efforts, agreed to hold the lease
on behalf of the company. Because he held an interest in its financial solvency, he
appointed the Regisseur of the German troupe at the Nationaltheater, Herr Mihule, to
direct the business affairs of the vaterländische Gesellschaft.
Under Mihule’s leadership the company presented both German and Czech
works at the Hibernium. They also made regular summer tours to Karlsbad.35 Table 3.2
lists the main personnel of the vaterländische Gesellschaft in 1791.
Teuber, 1: 306. A full account of these events of Czech theater and opera
history is recorded in Teuber, 2: 295–96.
33
This facility was operated as the Hibernium Theater from 1789 to 1808. It still
stands and is located only a short walk from the Nostitz theater in Prague’s Old Town
District (Stare Mesto). Known today as the House of the Hibernians (Dum U Hybernu), it
is located at the edge of Republic Square in New Town (Novým Meste), directly across
from “Powder Gate” (Prašná brána ), the historical entrance to Old Town. The site dates
from the year 1355, during the reign of Charles IV, when St. Ambrosius Church and
monastery was erected on that location commemorating his coronation at Milan’s St.
Ambrosius Church. For several centuries the monastery was occupied by various
religious orders. From 1640 it was occupied by the Hibernians, who planted potatoes in
its courtyard. At that time the complex was known as the Church of the Immaculate
Conception of the Virgin Mary. The Catholic community was dissolved in 1786.
34
35
Teuber, 2: 297.
56
Table 3.2
Personnel of the vaterländische Gesellschaft, 179136
TITLE/FUNCTION
NAME37
Director
Mihule
Actresses/Singers
Juwe, Milde, Merunka, Nelke, Pelling, Reinwarth,
Rosenheim, Schicketanz, Sewe, Stuna, Wagner,
Wieser, and Zappe
Actors/Singers
Diestler, Faßbach, Grube, Günther, Radleczek,
Kuditsch, Mayober, Max, Merunka, Michaelis,
Mihule, Möller, Schicketanz, Schmied, Steinmüller,
Stuna, Swaboda, Tham, Wagner, Weiser, and Zappe
Balletmaster
Sewe
Chorus master
Bortlitz
Ballet rehearsal director
Nawratil
Music Director
Volanek
The vaterländische Gesellschaft flourished in its new facility during the early 1790s,
producing popular Czech and German stage works with little German opposition to its
nationalistic agenda. Company members occasionally appeared with the German
company at the Nationaltheater, where the new general manager, Domenico Guardasoni
(1731–1806), admired their musical, dramatic, and comic talents.38 The quality of
36
Ibid.
37
Only last names are recorded in Teuber, 2: 297.
Guardasoni had been responsible for arranging the première at the Nostitz
Theater of Mozart’s Don Giovanni (1787). He became the director of the Nostitz Theater
in 1791, becoming responsible for all management decisions. That year (1791) he
commissioned Mozart’s coronation opera, La clemenzo di Tito , an indication of his stature
38
57
productions at the Hibernium reached the notice of Emperor Leopold, who attended a
performance on 16 September 1791, while in Prague for his coronation as King of
Bohemia. In 1794 the vaterländische Gesellschaft presented the first Czech translation of
Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.
Significant changes in leadership occurred at both the vaterländische Gesellschaft
and the German company at the Nostitz Theater during the next three years, however.
In 1796 Herr Grams, a former orchestra leader at the Nostitz Theater, replaced Mihule as
company director of the vaterländische Gesellschaft. That same year, Guardasoni hired
Steinsberg to direct the German company at the Nostitz Theater.39 Steinsberg’s Czech
patriotism, outspokenness, and creative talent were well established.
Steinsberg and the vaterländische Gesellschaft Leave Prague
As the new director of the German company at the Nostitz Theater, Steinsberg
hired Karel Währ (b. 1745) out of retirement to serve as Regisseur . 40 Like Steinsberg,
Währ was a well-known member of Prague’s theatrical community. He was considered
an exceptional comic talent in the improvisational tradition of Hanswurst and Bernadon,
as was Steinsberg. Two decades earlier, he had served as the Director of Prague’s old
Kotzen Theater (from 1780–1783), when it was among the city’s m ost important
theatrical venues (prior to the opening of Count Nostitz’s Theater). Währ had also
directed the first German company at the Nostitz Theater in 1783, the company that was
fired the in 1784 for performing Czech-language stage works. In other words, Währ had
in Prague at the time. Tomislav Volek, “Guardasoni, Domenico,” Grove Music Online ed.
L. Macy (Accessed 15 October 2004), http://www.grovemusic.com .
39
Teuber, 2: 319.
Born in St. Petersburg, Währ had worked with Haydn at Esterháza and also in
Vienna and Salzburg before coming to Prague in 1780. His interest in joining Prague’s
theatrical community is discussed in Teuber, 1: 351.
40
58
been a supporter of the founding members of the vaterländische Gesellschaft. The creative
pairing of Währ and Steinsberg, both of whom were aligned with the nationalistic
agenda of the vaterländische Gesellschaft, was viewed as a potentially problematic
situation by some members of Prague’s ruling nobility. There was less German
resistance to Czech patriots in 1796, however, and in the 1796–97 season, Währ’s stage
direction earned splendid reviews for Steinsberg’s German company at the
Nationaltheater.41 However, the threatening advances of Napoleon’s Italian Campaign
between 1796 and 1797 were simultaneously generating anxiety among the citizens of
Prague.42 In response, Steinsberg persuaded Guardasoni to combine the Italian and
German com panies from the Nostitz Theater with local Czech performers for a series of
patriotic festivals during the 1796–97 season.43 Under Steinsberg’s direction a large
contingency of actors, singers, and dancers from Prague presented German odes,
cantatas, Singspiels, and spoken plays, as well as Czech folksongs, Singspiels and plays,
all of which were dedicated to the memory of fallen Bohemian soldiers. Performances
took place on 3 and 18 November 1796, and 12 February 1797. Later in 1797, Steinsberg
staged an open-air performance of a military play that featured real cannon fire,
inadvertently provoking defensive maneuvers from a nearby fortress.44
Steinsberg hired some of the vaterländische Gesellschaft to augment his German
company at the Nostitz Theater. In 1796 (perhaps earlier) he also began collaborating
with the vaterländische Gesellschaft orchestra leader Vincenc Tucek (1773–1821, or later)
on the previously mentioned series of Czech-language Singspiels. The first was called
41
Teuber, 2: 328–29.
Between March 1796 and April 1797 Napoleon’s forces had weakened the
Austrian army and positioned themselves to invade Vienna. An armistice was
established at Leoben (April 1797), and the Treaty of Campo Formia was signed in
October 1797. Robert A. Kamm, A History of the Hapsburg Empire, 1526–1918 (Berkeley,
CA: University of California Press, 1974), 214–15.
42
43
Teuber 2: 328.
44
Wurzbach, “Steinsberg,” 157.
59
Hanns Klachel von Przelautsch , oder Das Rendezvous in der neuen Allee (Honza Kolonat z
prelouce). It premiered at the Hibernium in 1796. Die zwei Klacheln von Przelautsch , the
sequel to Honza Kolonat z prelouce, was premiered at the Hibernium the following year.
The vaterländische Gesellschaft underwent another change in leadership in 1797,
when Count Johann von Stentzsch, a Czech nobleman loyal to the Royal Bohemian
Estates, was appointed as the new company director. Stentzsch subsequently combined
the personnel of the vaterländische Gesellschaft, which regularly toured to Karlsbad in the
summer months, with the personnel from a troupe at Karlsbad. The roster of company
personnel in 1797 is listed in Table 3.3.
Table 3.3
Personnel of the United vaterländische Gesellschaft and the Karlsbad Company
Following Stentzsch’s Tour, 179745
TITLE/FUNCTION
NAME
Director
Freiherr v. Stentzsch
Stage Director
Hr. Krüger
Actors
Bullinger, Denisle, Eberhard, Haklik, Herrmann, Kock,
Leutner, Lindner, Müller, Pichler, Schantroch, Schubert,
Swoboda, Tham, Weiß, Wieland, Quirenz, and Zappe.
Actresses
Bauer, Bluth, Brunian, Denisle, Fleck, Krüger,
Leutner, Herrmann, Lindner, Schantroch, Tham, and Zappe
45
Again, only last names are listed in this source. Teuber, 2: 319.
60
TITLE/FUNCTION
NAME
Ballet master
Barchielli
Dancers
Cossani, Barghielli and Cossani
Music Director
Granitz
Chorus master
Wolanek (Volanek)
Stentzsch’s tenure as Director ended that same year, when he was assigned to
arrange for the sale of Count Nostitz’s Theater to the Royal Bohemian Estates.46
Steinsberg replaced Stentzsch at the Hibernium Theater, while retaining his position
with the German company at the Nostitz Theater. Consequently, he was in charge of
Prague’s two most important German companies during the 1797–98 season. His
activities at Prague came to an abrupt end soon afterward, however.
On Easter 1798 Steinsberg’s contract at the Nostitz Theater expired and was not
renewed. Stentzsch had arranged for a theater commission to be appointed by members
of the Bohemian Estates, the entity scheduled to purchase the theater.47 Almost
simultaneously, the vaterländische Gesellschaft lost its lease to the Hibernium Theater, as
that facility was scheduled to come under the management of the new theater
Count Nostritz died in 1789. His will obligated his heir to sell the property to
the Royal Bohemian Estates by the end of 1798. Details of that transaction, which
affected Czech-language theater at Prague for several years, are described in Teuber, 2:
334–38.
46
See Teuber, 1: 335–40, for precise details copied directly from the archival
record on the sale of the Nostitz theater and its subsequent management.
47
61
commission.48 In the summer of 1798 Steinsberg and the members of the vaterländische
Gesellschaft, along with Währ, made their regular tour to the resort towns of Karlsbad
and Teplitz. 49 Steinsberg’s troupe is referred to as the “k. k. privilegierte deutsche
Schauspielergesellschaft” from Karlsbad in Lorenz’s critical edition of the score
fragments to Weber’s Das Waldmädchen. 50 This is similar to the company name that
appears on the Chemnitz playbill: der Karlsbaderdeutschen Schauspieler-Gesellschaft. It is
possible that the performances given during Steinsberg’s 1798 residency at Karlsbad
earned his troupe a royal privilege.
The names of the main personnel on that tour are listed in Table 3.4. Steinsberg’s
company returned to Prague in the fall of 1798, at which point Währ retired.
Table 3.4
Personnel of Steinsberg’s Touring Company
at Prague and Carlsbad, Summer 179851
TITLE/FUNCTION
NAME
Director
Carl Ritter v. Steinsberg
Stage Director
Karl Währ
Actors
Arnoldi, Berka, Bellinger, Denisle, Eberhard, Fischer,
Grüber, Hörcher, Kadleczek, Kirmair, Köhler, Kurz,
Michaelis, Piping, Reinicke, Scheidaner, Schreiber, Weißer
The privilege of the vaterländische Gesellschaft remained in effect after the troupe
lost its lease to the Hibernium Theater. It was acquired by the Royal Theater of the
Estates until 1804. Tyrell, Czech Opera, 18.
48
49
Teuber, 2: 339; Wurzbach, “Steinsberg,” 157.
50
Lorenz, “Waldmädchen,” VII.
51
Teuber, 2. 340.
62
TITLE/FUNCTION
NAME
Ballet master
Jungheim
Solo Dancers:
Heiß, Uhlich, Roller, Jungheim, and Spania
Actresses:
Reinike, Denisle, Fischer, Glazer, Jungheim, Kurz, Michaelis,
Reimarth, Scheidauer, Schrott, Tilly, Wießer, Zappe,
Werbach
Principal Dancer
Spania
Dancers
Scher, Milde
Music Director
Brautner
In 1798 the name of the Nostitz Theater was officially changed to the Royal
Theater of the Estates (Königliches Ständestheater , the Ständisches Nationaltheater in Prag, or
the Králowské stavovské divadlo in primary sources). Legal stipulations associated with
the change of ownership were agreed upon. Primarily, these were business
arrangements intended to ensure that any financial debts incurred by the commission to
run the theater would be paid. In February 1799 Herr Stentzsch issued an official
proclamation announcing that the new theater commission would oversee all theater
companies in the city. 52 The commission’s authority commenced on 18 April 1799.53
Guardasoni was appointed by the commission to continue as the General Director
(Pachter) of the Estates Theater. However, all decisions concerning such important
52
Teuber, 2: 335, f. n.
Teuber, 2: 335 f. n., and 338–39. The Commission of the Royal Theater of the
Estates held a monopoly on all stage performances in Prague for the next sixty years,
allowing its trustees and intendants to determine the language and content of all
professional performances of stage works in Prague. Tyrell, Czech Opera ,16–18.
53
63
matters as censorship, authorization of repertoire, oversight of stage direction, enforcing
the conditions of artists’ contracts and the conditions by which artists were engaged,
were to be determined solely by the new theater commission. Guardasoni was advisory
to the commission.
Steinsberg and the members of the vaterländische Gesellschaft left Prague and went
to Vienna in 1799. Evidence of a residency by any touring company at Vienna in 1799 is
slim or non-existent. Yet Vienna’s popular theaters would have offered many
opportunities for members of Steinsberg’s company to be assimilated into various local
productions. Vienna’s several commercial theaters were small enterprises with slim
budgets. Their repertoire was consistent with that of Steinsberg’s troupe, comprising
lighter German stage works, including spoken plays in the popular conversational style
of the day, tragedies, comic farces, magic operas, fairy-tale operas, historical works,
Ritter-drama (historical fantasies set in early times), ballets, pantomimes, and even
jugglers and instrumental soloists from time to time. Among the most active facilities
were the Theater an der Wien, where many actors and singers from Prague participated
with Emmanuel Schickaneder’s troupe; the Theater auf der Wieden, in the Wieden
suburb of Vienna; and two other suburban theaters—the Leopoldstadt and the
Josefstadt. Compilations of repertoire and personnel can be derived by perusing extant
periodicals, playbills, and theater calendars. Archival documents, including records of
income or payroll, can provide additional information. Such items do not necessarily
contain a complete account of all productions and participants. Thus, the activities of
Steinsberg and his company, and even the length of time they remained in Vienna,
remains unspecified.
It seems likely that Steinsberg’s journey to Vienna was related to a production of
Hans Klachel, der Bräutigam von Kakran (1797) presented at Vienna’s Leopoldstadt Theater
on 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 January, and 3 February 1799, since that Singspiel had
originally been written for the vaterländische Gesellschaft. 54 It paired Steinsberg’s libretto
Allgemeine deutsche Theaterzeitung , vol. 3 (Brünn: K. K. Priv. Mährischen
Lehnbank, 1799), 44–45. The Viennese premiere on 15 January 1799 was a benefit for
54
64
with music by Prague composer Vincenc Tucek (1773–1821).55 Jan Vondrácek’s 1926
study of the history of Czech theater, Prehledmé Dejiny Ceského Divadla, states that Hans
Klachel oder das Rendevouz in der neuen Allee (1796), the first of Steinsberg’s farcical spoofs
featuring the Hans Klachl character, was popular at the Leopoldstadt Theater, although
it does not specify dates or company information. Karl Marinelli (1745–1803), who held
the lease to the Leopoldstadt Theater in 1799, would probably have been responsible for
selecting repertoire and performers at that venue.
The title of Steinsberg’s Singspiel provides a revealing glimpse of Viennese
popular theater culture at the end of the eighteenth century, a world that Steinsberg
someone named Herr Baumann. (Kakran, Savar, is a village in modern-day Bangladesh,
famous for the traditional pottery of its indigenous inhabitants.) Hereafter, Allgemeine
deutsche Theaterzeitung , vol. 3 (1799).
In 1801 Vincenc Tomáš Václav Tucek (1773–1821?) became the music director
at the Leopoldstadt Theater, a position he held until 1809. Thus, in 1804–05, when
Weber’s Das Waldmädchen was presented at the Leopoldstadt (as Das Mädchen aus
Spessarter Wald) Tucek would have been the music director, working closely with theater
manager Wenzel Müller.
Tucek shared the nationalistic sentiments of Steinsberg and the vaterländische
Gesellschaft. His father, Jan Tucek, was a musical colleague of the first patriotic Czechs to
produce Czech-language stage works at Prague. Vincenc Tucek first sang at the
Hibernium Theater in December 1793. The following year he sang the role of Tamino in
the first Czech-language performance of Die Zauberflöte at the Hibernium. From 1794 to
1796 he was the harpsichordist for the vaterländische Gesellschaft. He composed about six
Singspiels for that company. His first three operas, Die Prager Bräuer (1795), Hanns Klachl
von Przelautsch, oder Das Rendezvous in der neuen Allee (Honza Kolonat z prelouce) and Die
zwei Klacheln von Przelautsch (also called Die beiden Dacheln, or Hans Klachel, Der
Bräutigam von Kakran, 1797) were written for Steinsberg’s company. In 1796–97 Tucek
was also employed at the Nostitz Theater, working closely with Steinsberg. In 1798
Tucek became Kapellmeister to Peter Biron, formerly the Duke of Courland, and staged
a production of Don Giovanni at the castle theatre at Náchod (located in eastern Bohemia,
and from 1795 under Russia rule). He went to Breslau in 1800 and to Vienna in March
1801. Peter Branscomb, “Vincenc (Tomáš Václav) Tucek [Tuczek, (Franz) Vinzenz
(Ferrerius)],” in Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 23 February 2004),
http://www.grovemusic.com, and Adolf Scherl, “Tucek, Vincenc Tomáš Václav,” in
Národní Divadlo a jeho predchudci: Slovnik um elcu divadel Vlastenského, Stavovského,
Prozatímniho a Národníiho (Prague: Academia Praha, 1988), 534.
55
65
appears to have known quite well. From 1785 a popular periodical called Briefe eines
Eipeldauers an seinen Herrn Vetter in Kakran über d´Wienstadt (Letters from one Eipeldauer
to his cousin in Kakran about Vienna) was circulated in Vienna and elsewhere.56 Written
in a stylized and folksy vernacular, it consisted of fictional letters about current local
events, offering a satirical picture of Viennese mannerisms, witticisms, and customs
from the point of view of a farmer named Eipeldauer. A simple peasant character,
Eipeldauer was comparable to the Hans Klachl- and other Hanswurst-type characters
still common in the Viennese popular theater tradition, even though such characters had
been banned years earlier. The title of Steinsberg’s 1797 sequel, Hans Klachl, The
Bridegroom from Kakran, demonstrates that he was familiar with Richter’s periodical, and
helps account for the popularity of this Singspiel at Vienna in 1799. Additional
performances were given at the Leopoldstadt on 1 and 10 March; 2, 19, and 30 April; 10
June; 8 July; 7 September; 22 October; and 11 November 1799.57
From Vienna, Steinsberg’s company traveled back to Karlsband and Teplitz for
their usual summer residencies. Weber and his father met Steinsberg for the first time at
Karlsbad in 1799. Next, they resided at Augsburg from September to December 1799.58
They may have gone from there to Vienna, and possibly to Karlsbad after that, although
their whereabouts from January to July 1800 are unclear.59 In August 1800 S teinsberg
Viennese writer Joseph Richter (1749–1813) was the author. The magazine was
printed by the Viennese firm of Christoph Peter Rehm from 1785 until Richter’s death in
1813.
56
57
Allgemeine deutsche Theaterzeitung , vol. 3 (1799): 51, 77, 101, 102, 108, and 153.
Details of their performances at Augsburg are preserved in A. L. Dahlstedt,
Theater-Journal derjenigen Schauspiele und Opern, welche in Augsburg von der Karl Ritter von
Steinsbergischen Gesellschaft deutscherSchauspieler vom 12. September bis 31. Dezember 1799
ausgeführt wurden (Augsburg: n. p., 1800). Hereafter, Dahlstedt, Augsburg .
58
Wurzbach, and Mikovec record only that Steinsberg traveled to Vienna in 1799.
Wurzbach, “Steinsberg,” 38:158–59. See also, F. B. Mikovec, “Zur Geschichte des Prager
Theaters: von Steinsberg bis Liebich,” Bohemia 33, 1860, 2:153, hereafter, Mikovec,
“Prager Theater;” and Scherl, “Guolfinger von Steinsberg,” 126.
59
66
and his company began a three-month residency at Freiberg. Promising city officials
that the subscription series would culminate with the premiere of his newest opera, a
work not yet completed, Steinsberg persuaded Carl Maria von Weber to compose the
score to Das Waldmädchen. 60
The Freiberg (Saxony) Residency, August–November 1800
From Weber’s perspective, as a still unknown composer in his early teens, the
chance to collaborate with someone of Steinsberg’s stature was a remarkable
opportunity. Knowing that the opera would be premiered by one of the finest touring
companies in the region, and that Steinsberg himself would direct the performance,
Weber accepted the offer. Steinsberg’s primary interest in collaborating with Weber was
his pressing need for a new opera score within three months. Steinsberg might also
have been intrigued by the composer’s youthfulness, for Weber’s age was prominently
mentioned in this announcement in Freiberg’s local paper, the Gnädigst bewilligte
Freyberger gemeinnützige Nachrichten für das chursachsische Erzgebirge:
Monday, 24 November 1800: Das Waldmädchen, a Romantic -comic
opera in two acts by Ritter Karl von Steinsberg, set to music and
dedicated with deepest respect to her royal highness Maria Amalia
Augusta, Princess of Saxony, by Carl Maria B(aron) von Weber,
thirteen years old, a pupil of Haydn’s.61
Stebbins, Weber, 27; Max Maria states that Steinsberg pressed the young
musician to commit to writing the score because he had already promised, in exchange
for a concession to the theater, that his troupe would present a season of new and
extraordinarily enjoyable and original comedies, tragedies, ballets, and operas. MMW,
53.
60
Lorenz, “Waldmädchen,” VII. Translation, mine. Maria Amalia Augusta was
born in Mannheim on 10 May 1752. On 29 Jan 1769 she married King Friedrich August I
of Saxony at Dresden, becoming the Princess of Saxony. She died at Dresden on 5 May
1827. Jirí Louda and Michael MacLagan, Lines of Succession: Heraldry of the Royal Families
of Europe, 2nd ed. (London: Little, Brown and Company, 1999), tables 97 and 102.
61
67
Weber was neither a Baron, nor had he been a pupil of Joseph Haydn, as one
might infer from the wording of the announcement. He was simply unaware that his
father had acquired the courtly moniker as a stage name in the 1750s. (It will be recalled
that his teacher at Salzburg had been Michael Haydn, Joseph’s younger brother.)
During the three-month residency in Freiberg, Steinsberg produced at least fortytwo stage works.62 Among them were several of he had written himself: Die Rückkehr ins
Vaterhaus; Die Grafen Helfenfels; Die gute Laune ; Bonaparte in Ägypten and Liebe der
Untertanen.63 Table 3.5 lists the repertoire that Steinsberg’s troupe performed at
Freiberg.
Table 3.5
Repertoire Presented by Steinsberg’s Company
at Freiberg (Saxony), 24 August to 25 November 180064
AUTHOR
TITLE
GENRE
Kotzebue
Das Epigramm
Schauspiel
Ziegler
Jolantha
Trauerspiel
Haibel
Tiroler Wastel
Opera
Steinsberg
Die Gute Laune
Lustspiel
Kotzebue
Johanna von Montfaucon
Schauspiel
Ziegler
Waffenschmied
Lustspiel
62
Max Maria von Weber says there were fifty-five works produced. MMW, 55.
Walter Hermann, “Geschichte der Schauspielkunst in Freiberg,” in Schriften für
Theaterwissenschaft, 2: 489–744 (Berlin: n. p., 1960), 650–51. Hereafter, Hermann, Freiberg .
63
64
Hermann, Freiberg, 2: 650–51.
68
AUTHOR
TITLE
GENRE
Hensler
Rinaldo Rinaldini
Schauspiel
Kauer
Donauweibchen
Opera
Friedel
Illumination im Fischbehälter
Lustspiel
Gotter
Der schwarze mann
Lustspiel
Kotzebue
Der Gefangene
Lustspiel
Woytischek
Holzhändler
Opera
Crenzin
Der graue Mann
Schauspiel
Crenzin
Der Prüfstein
Schauspiel
Kotzebue
Die beiden Klingsberg
Lustspiel
Kaibel
Scharfschützen in Tirol
Opera
Kotzebue
Kluge Frau im Walde
Schauspiel
Kotzebue
Die Korsen
Schauspiel
Schikeneder
Philippine Welser
Schauspiel
W. Müller
Travestierter Aeneas
Opera
Steinsberg
Bonaparte in Ägypten
Schauspiel
Soden
Anna Boleyn
Trauerspiel
Kotzebue
Wildfang
Lustspiel
Kotzebue
Die Verwandten
Lustspiel
Iffland
Selbstbeherrschung
Schauspiel
Steinsberg
Rückkerhr ins Vaterhaus
Schauspiel
69
AUTHOR
TITLE
GENRE
Ziegler
Mathilde von Giesbach
Schauspiel
Steinsberg
Liebe der Untertanen
Lustspiel
Paneck
Christl. Judenbraut
Opera
Hagemann
Leichtsinn und ein guten Herz
Lustspiel
Iffland
Der Spieler
Schauspiel
Paesiello
Eingebildete Philosophen
Opera
Babo
Otto von Wittelsbach
Trauerspiel
Eckartshausen
Arthello
Lustspiel
Teuber
Karl von Eichenhorst
Opera
Ziegler
Inkognito
Lustspiel
Steinsberg
Die Grafen Helfenfels
Schauspiel
Steinsberg
Graue Laune
Lustspiel
Harrer65
Die Getäuschten
Lustspiel
Kotzebue
Die Unglücklichen
Lustspiel
Rautenstrauch
Jurist und Bauer
Lustspiel
C. M. von Weber
Das stumme Waldmädchen66
Opera (premiere)
Harrer was probably the actor who premiered the role of Rechtor in Weber’s
Das Waldmädchen.
65
66
Hermann uses this title.
70
Steinsberg’s choice of repertoire ranged from internationally known spoken
plays on popular themes (by Kotzebue and Iffland, for example), to his own stage works
and works by members of his company. His choices were consistent with the variety of
German operas, comic and tragic spoken plays, and ballets commonly performed in the
popular theaters of Vienna, Prague, Augsburg, Freiberg, Leipzig, and elsewhere by
traveling companies at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Weber completed his score to Das Waldmädchen in late October or early
November, in time for the opera’s scheduled premiere on 24 November 1800.
Afterward, S teinsberg’s company left Freiberg to prepare for a new residency at
Chemnitz. Weber and his father accompanied them.67 An advertisement appeared in
the Chemnitzer Anzeiger on 27 November 1800 listing the works in the Chemnitz
subscription:
27 November: Das Epigramm (Kotzebue);
28 November: Die gute Laune (Steinsberg), and a ballet by Jungheim ;68
29 November: Klara von Hohenneichen;69
1 December: Der Gefangene, by Kotzebue, and the ballet Der Sieg der Liebe;
3 December: Selbstbeherrschung , by Iffland; and,
5 December: Das stumme Waldmädchen, by Steinsberg and Weber. 70
67
Lorenz, “Waldmädchen,” IX.
Jungheim was one of the solo dancers in Steinsberg’s company when it toured
Teplitz and Karlsbad in 1798. Teuber, 2: 340.
68
69
A stage work by Christian Heinrich Spiess, 1755–99.
70
Chemnitzer Anzeiger (1800), No. 44. See also, Lorenz, “Waldmädchen,” III.
71
While in Chemnitz, Weber’s father wrote to Joseph Kirms, Intendant at Weimar,
asking that his son’s new opera be performed in that theater. He enclosed a playbill
from the Chemnitz production of Das stumme Waldmädchen.71
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz: Weberiana V. 5, D. 128,
which is the Chemnitz playbill, is reprinted in Ernst Pasqué, Goethe’s Theaterleitung in
Weimar (Leipzig, 1863), 2: 26 f. n. (hereafter, Pasqué, Goethe’s Theaterleitung in Weimar),
and is discussed with regard to this opera in Lorenz, “Waldmädchen,” VII. A
translation of the playbill appears on page 86–87 of the present study.
71
72
CHAPTER 4
WEBER’S DAS WALDMÄDCHEN (1800)
Performances of Weber’s Early Opera
Thirteen-year-old Carl Maria von Weber composed the score to the two-act opera
Das Waldmädchen from mid-August to mid-November 1800. This stage work holds a
seminal position in the composer’s creative oeuvre as his first professionally produced
opera and as his earliest successful attempt to compose in the genre that would bring
him his greatest artistic triumphs. 1 The opera was premiered at the Buttermarkt Theater
in Freiberg on 24 November 1800, as the final event in a three-month-long residency by a
traveling theater company of approximately 30 actors, singers, and dancers. The troupe
was managed by Karl Guolfinger Ritter von Steinsberg (1756/57–1806).
Almost immediately after the opera’s premiere Steinsberg moved his company
from Freiberg to the nearby city of Chemnitz to begin a new residency. It began with a
second performance of the new opera on 5 December 1800. For that occasion the title of
the work was modified from Das Waldmädchen to Das stumme Mädchen, effectively
emphasizing the muteness of the title character. Steinsberg had considerable artistic
control over the opera at both Freiberg and Chemnitz, for not only did he write the
libretto and manage the company that was to premiere it, but he also served as stage
According to Weber, the score to his first opera Die Macht der Liebe und das
Weins (1798–99) burned in a fire shortly after he completed it (at age 11). It was never
performed. John Warrack, Carl Maria von Weber (London: Macmillan, 1968), 33.
Hereafter, Warrack, Weber.
1
73
director (regisseur ) and sang the principal tenor role for those performances. An extant
playbill from the 5 December Chemnitz performance lists the names of the cast members
from the second performance. 2 Presumably, this same cast had premiered the work at
Freiberg in late November. The playbill reads:
Das stumme Waldmädchen
Eine romantische-komische Oper in swey Aufzügen von Ritter von
Steinsberg, in Musik gesetzt von Herrn Karl Maria B. von Weber, 13 Jahre
alt, einem Zögling von Haydn.
Fürst Arbander
Mathilde, seine Tochter
Prinz Sigmund von Mathusien
Fürst Hartor
Ritter Wensky
Rechter, ein Waldmann
Silwana, das Waldmädchen
Kunigunde, Mathildens Kammerfrau
Konrad Witzlingo, Fürst Hartors Stallmeister
Krieps, Prinz Sigmunds Jagdknappe
Hr. Gromann
Mad. Saifert
R. von Steinsberg
Hr. Aßmann
Hr. Loeser
Hr. v. Harrer
Mad. Spania
Mad. Loeser
Hr. Krüger
Hr. Seidel
Geharnischte Ritter, Jäger, Damen beym Turnier und Fackeltanz, Viele
Knappen und Reisige.
The opera was performed several times. In 1818 Weber wrote a brief
autobiographical sketch, in which he claimed that in addition to the Freiberg and
Chemnitz productions, Das Waldmädchen had also been performed at Vienna, Prague (in
Czech), and St. Petersburg:
I set Ritter von Steinberg’s Das Waldmädchen, and the opera was
performed in November 1800. It was later given further afield than I
could have wished (fourteen performances in Vienna, translated into
Czech for Prague and successful in St. Petersburg), since it is a very
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz: Weberiana V. 5, D. 128,
hereafter, Chemnitz playbill. Reprinted in Pasqué, Goethes Theaterleitung in Weimar, II: 26
f.n. (hereafter, Pasqué) and Lorenz, “Waldmädchen,” VII.
2
74
immature work with no more than occasional glimpses of inventiveness.
In fact, Act 2 was written in ten days—one of the many regrettable
consequences of the effect on a young mind of those impressive stories
told of the great masters, whose example always stimulates imitation.3
Weber’s 1818 assessment of his score as “a very immature work” corresponds closely to
the published opinion by the music critic who in 1801 first reviewed the opera at
Freiberg, likening it to “a blossom that promises better and riper fruit.”4
Weber’s claim of a performance in Prague has never been verified, but Das
Waldmädchen was produced at Vienna’s Leopoldstadt Theater in 1804 at least nine time
under Wenzel Müller’s direction. For those performances the opera was renamed once
Warrack, Weber: Writings, 250–51. For the original German text see Kaiser,
Sämtliche Schriften, 127. Although Warrack questions the accuracy of this document as a
whole, stating, “Its faults of memory, omissions and special pleading (for instance, on
behalf of his father) make it an unreliable biographical source,” the composer’s
comments about the reception of Das Waldmädchen are essential to the present study.
3
In its entirety, the review states: “Die Fabel des Stückes ist nicht übel erfunden,
sie ist interessant und abenteuerlich, ohne ungereimt zu sein, nur die Ausführung läßt
manches zu wünschen übrig. Ueberhaupt aber schienen die Erwartungen des
Publikums von dieser Oper zu sehr gespannt worden zu sein, als daß sie hätten
befriedigt werden können, und zum Theil hatte man vielleicht ungünstige Vorurtheile
mit zur Stelle gebracht; genug! Die Oper gefiel weit weniger, als man gehofft hatte,
obgleich manche ungleich schlechter erfundene Singspiele hier Glück machten. Auch
die Musik erhielt nicht ganz den Beifall, den sie verdient, wenn man billige Rücksichten
nimmt. Freilich darf man sie mehr nur als Blüthen betrachten, die erst in der Folge
schönere und reifere Früchte versprechen. (In Chemnitz hat diese Oper ausgezeichneten
Beifall erhalten.)”
“The story on which the work is based is not a bad one; it is fascinating and
bizarre, without being illogical, only the realization left much to be desired. In general,
however, the public had eagerly anticipated this opera and expected to be pleased,
although some perhaps were prejudiced against it, having brought this attitude with
them. Enough! The opera succeeded less than one would have had hoped for, although
many considerably worse Singspiels have had good luck here. And the music was not
as satisfying as it might have been, if one evaluates it fairly. Indeed, one can consider it
a mere blossom that promises better and riper fruit. (In Chemnitz the opera was
excellently received.)” Freyberger gemeinnützige Nachrichten für das chursächsische
Erzgebirge, 2: (January 1801), 11; and Lorenz, “Waldmädchen,” VII; translation, mine.
4
75
again. It is listed in Müller’s diary of theater productions as Das Mädchen im
Spessarterwald, referencing the hilly and forested region known as the Spessart that
extends from northwestern Bavaria to southern Hesse.5 According to his diary, Müller
presented the opera in three acts instead of its original two-act form. Müller’s version
premiered at Vienna on 4 December 1804. Additional performances took place at the
Leopoldstadt Theater on 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 14, and 29 December 1804, and also on 8 June 1805
(see Figures 4.1 and 4.2).6
A notation on a playbill from the Leopoldstadt production of Das Mädchen in
Spessarterwald, written by Friedrich Wilhelm Jähns (1809–1888), states that an additional
performance was given on 6 June 1805. The note cites information from the archives of
the Carlstheater.7 The 6 June 1805 date does not appear in Müller’s record.
The premiere of this opera at the Leopoldstadt Theater is listed in the chronology
of Viennese theater productions published in 1807, Chronologisches Verzeichniß Wien,
1794–1807 .8 That source refers to the opera as: “Das Mädchen im Spessarerwalde [sic].
Stadts- und Landsbibliothek, Vienna, Tagebuch über das Theater in der
Leopoldstadt (1781–1830), Sign. 51926 JB.
5
6
Ibid.
Deutsche Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Weberiana V, 5,
129). See also, Lorenz, “Waldmädchen,” IX. Jähns was referring to the former archives
of the Leopoldstadt Theater, established in 1781 by Karl Marinelli (1745–1803) and
demolished in 1847 by its new owner Carl Carl. The facility was replaced later that same
year by the Carlstheater.
7
Chronologisches Verzeichniss aller Schauspiele, deutschen und italienischen Opern,
Pantomimen und Ballette welche seit dem Monath April 1794 bis wieder dahin 1807 nämlich
durch volle 13 Jahre sowohl in den k. k. Hoftheatern als auch den k. k. privil. Schauspielhäusern,
vormahles auf der Wieden und an der Wien und in der Leopoldstadt aufgeführet worden sind.
Mit den Namen der Dichter und Musik-komposituere. Nebst dem ausweise aller Individuen, die
während dieser Zeit in den 4 Theatern, theils in Gast-theils in Debüts-Rollen aufgetreten sind;
und noch anderer auf diese Theater Beziehung nehmenden Veränderungen. (Vienna: Johann
Baptist Wallishauser, 1807), 142–43. Hereafter, Chronologisches Verzeichniß Wien, 1794–
1807 . Národní muzeum v Praze Archiv, Holzmann-Bohatta IV., 10061, Radenín 1685a.
8
76
Figure 4.1
Wenzel Müller’s diary entry for December 1804, Stadts- und Landsbibliothek, Vienna,
Tagebuch über das Theater in Der Leopoldstadt (1781–1830), Sign. 51926 JB.
77
Figure 4.2
Wenzel Müller’s diary entry for June 1805. Stadts- und Landsbibliothek, Vienna,
Tagebuch über das Theater in Der Leopoldstadt (1781–1830), Sign. 51926 JB.
78
Eine heroische-komische Oper in 2 Aufzügen, die Musik vom Kapellmeister Müller.
Den 4. Dezember.” Although it credits Müller as the composer, Müller’s diary entry
clearly attributes the score to Weber. A table in the book tallies the stage works
performed for the first time at the Leopolstadt Theater between 1794 and 1807,
establishing the number of opera titles produced in comparison to the number of spoken
plays and danced works.9 These figures indicate the typical types of stage works
produced at this venue. Within the span of the thirteen year period it reflects there were
a total of 299 differently titled productions. Of those, 176 were spoken plays, 109 were
operas or Singspiels, and only 14 were ballets or pantomimes.10 In 1804, when Müller’s
production of Weber’s Das Waldmädchen was introduced to Viennese audiences for the
first time, a total of 29 spoken stage works, 17 operas, and 1 ballet/pantomime was
presented at the Leopoldstadt Theater (46 individual stage works).
For almost two centuries no evidence was found to uphold Weber’s claim that
his early opera had been performed at St. Petersburg. In 2000, however, Russian
musicologist Natalia Gubkina discovered a complete score to Das Waldmädchen, along
with a full set of orchestra parts, in the archives of the central music library of the
Mariinsk y State Theater.11 She subsequently located a published notice from the
Nordisches Archiv stating that Das Waldmädchen was performed at a benefit performance
for a singer named Johann Hübsch.12
This source tallies the first performance of each title at each venue only, not the
total number of performances at each venue. Chronologisches Verzeichniß Wien, 1794–
1807 , 153.
9
10
The ballets or pantomimes were produced between 1804 and 1807. Ibid .
Mariinsky State Classical Theater of Opera and Ballet, Central Music Library,
RF-Sprob, Sign. I.1.W.373. Gubkina, “Webers Waldmädchen,” 57–59. I am grateful to
Frank Heidlberger for informing me of her discovery early in my research.
11
Nordisches Archiv, Vol. 2 (St. Petersburg, 1804), 62. The brief newspaper
announcement states only that Das Waldmädchen was premiered at a benefit performance
for singer Johann Hübsch in February 1804 and found to be very dull: “Das
Waldmädchen zum Benefiz des Hrn. Hübsch ist sehr fade befunden.” According to
12
79
Prior to 2000 Das Waldmädchen received little scholarly attention. According to
Gubkina, few bothered to continue searching for a score, because searches by Jähns’s
and Hans-Joachim Moser (1889–1967) had been unsuccessful.13 Gubkina found Weber’s
score while compiling a list of German theater personnel from the St. Petersburg opera.
Her subsequent research has shown that Steinsberg, along with several members of his
company, had traveled from Vienna to St. Petersburg in November 1802 at the invitation
of Joseph Miré, administrator at St. Petersburg’s German Private Theater. Steinsberg
had been invited by Miré to becom e the new artistic director of the city’s German theater
company.14 Steinsberg probably brought the score to Das Waldmädchen with him at that
time. Steinsberg did not direct the opera, however, for he moved from St. Petersburg to
Moscow in 1803.15
Aside from the Freiberg and Chemnitz productions, Weber was not present for
any of the other performances of his opera at St. Petersburg, at Vienna, or at the
performance he asserted had taken place at Prague.16 Nor is there any evidence that
Weber learned of those performances until after they had occurred, a lacuna that leaves
modern scholars to wonder, much as Weber himself seems to have wondered in 1818,
why such an immature stage work achieved so much stage time. Table 4.1 presents the
documented performances of this early opera, as well as the Prague performances that
Weber referred to in his autobiographical sketch.
Gubkina, that performance took place at the theater of the Kušelevschen House.
Gubkina, “Notizen,” 35.
13
14
15
Scherl, “Steinsberg,” 126–27.
Weber was employed as Director of German Opera in Breslau for two years,
beginning 11 July 1804. He lived in Vienna in early 1804, when the opera was
performed at St. Petersburg. Tusa, “Weber,” 138. The performance of his opera at
Prague in Czech is discussed in Chapter 7 of the present study.
16
80
Table 4.1
Reported Performances of Weber’s Das Waldmädchen (J. Anh. 1)
DATE
VENUE
TITLE/OCCASION
SOURCE
24 November
1800
Buttermarkt
Theater,
Freiberg (Saxony)
Das Waldmädchen,
produced by
Steinsberg (in 2 acts)
Score fragments,
newspaper
announcements and
reviews, letters,
Weber’s
autobiographical
sketch
5 December
1800
Theater at
Chemnitz
Das stumme
Waldmädchen,
produced by
Steinsberg (in 2 acts)
Score fragments,
newspaper
announcements and
reviews, letters,
Weber’s
autobiographical
sketch, playbill
February
1804
KušelevschenTheater,
St. Petersburg
Das Waldmädchen, at a Complete score and set
benefit performance for of orchestra parts;
singer Johann Hübsch
newspaper
announcement
5, 6, 7, 9, 10,
14, and 29
December,
1804; 6, 8
June 180517
Theater an der
Leopoldstadt,
Vienna;
Das Mädchen im
Spesarterwald ,
produced by Wenzel
Müller (in 3 acts)
Playbill, Müller’s diary,
and theater records
Jähn’s notation on Deutsche Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preußischer
Kulturbesitz, Weberiana V, 5. 129 (based on Carlstheater records he reviewed).
17
81
DATE
VENUE
TITLE/OCCASION
SOURCE
Unverified
Theater/Company
unknown,
Prague
Title not known
Performed in Czech,
according to Weber’s
autobiographical
sketch
Weber’s Continued Interest in Das Waldmädchen
The title character in Weber’s opera Das Waldmädchen exhibits the distinctively
un-operatic trait of muteness. Indeed, the mysterious forest maiden confounds the other
characters because she neither speaks nor sings.18 Although title roles of this type were
typical in the pantomime-ballet genre during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries, mute roles for important characters in an opera, beyond the occasional use of
stock characters associated with either the Kurz-Bernadon/Hanswurst/Kasparl or the
commedia dell‘arte traditions, were extremely rare.19
According to Gubkina the St. Petersburg score and set of orchestra parts does
not include the dialogue text that would have been spoken between the musical
numbers of the opera, making it impossible to conclude with certainty if Silwana
eventually uses her voice. Gubkina, “Notizen,” 38. Mute characters in spoken or sung
stage works appears to have been in vogue around the time that Steinsberg produced
his libretto to Das Waldmädchen. Titles of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenthcentury works with this unusual type of role include: Stummes Mädchen, Georg
Colmann’s 1770 Lustspiel based on Ben Jonson’s 1609 comedy, Epicoene, or, The silent
woman; Ludwig Tieck’s version of the same work: Epicoene oder Das Stumme Mädchen
(1800 ); Kotzebue’s Der Taubstumme (1800) and Die kluge Frau im Walde, oder der stumme
Ritter (1801). Auber’s well known La Muette de Portici (1828) was a considerably later
example of this kind of role in an opera.
18
Poštolka and Hickman, “Wranitzky.” A helpful explanation of commedia
dell’arte characters in the operas of the popular Viennese composer Paul Wranitzsky
appears in Solomon St. Laurent, 156.
19
82
The use of a pantomime character in the title role of an opera required
particularly expressive orchestral music to convey the character’s feelings in each of her
scenes.20 That sort of artistic challenge may have fueled Weber’s continued interest in
the libretto to Das Waldmädchen long after he completed his early opera in 1800. Other
reasons, too, may account for his subsequent interest in this story as the basis for a
second opera.
This particular character drew Weber’s creative attention for a considerable
period of time, for in November 1807, upon being challenged by his friend Franz Danzi
to produce a new stage work, Weber asked poet Franz Karl Hiemer (1768–1822) to write
a new libretto based on Steinsberg’s libretto to Das Waldmädchen.21 Two years later he
completed his fifth opera, which he named Silvana (c. 1808–10). It also featured a title
role that was danced, not sung. The new Waldmädchen opera was premiered at a concert
production in Frankfurt in 1810. Weber subsequently revised his score for a fully staged
production of Silvana at Berlin in 1812. He revised it a third time in 1817, when he
decided to produce the opera at Dresden shortly after assuming the post of Director of
the newly formed German National Opera. His second Waldmädchen opera did very
well, providing Weber with his single most performed opera until 1821, when Der
Freischütz premiered at Berlin. For comparative purposes, a complete list of Weber’s
music for the operatic stage is shown in Table 4.2.
This character is identified as Silwana in the playbill from the Chemnitz
performance (see transcription above) and in the St. Petersburg score. Gubkina,
“Notizen,” 35.
20
In the autobiographical sketch, Weber also stated, “I wrote my opera Silvana on
Hiemer’s new version of my earlier Waldmädchen.” Weber, Writings on Music, 254.
21
83
Table 4.2
Weber’s Music for the Stage22
TITLE AND
LOCATION/DATE OF
PREMIERE
COMPOSER’S
DESIGNATION
DATES
LIBRETTIST
Die Macht der Liebe und Singspiel
des Weins, J. Anh. 6
(lost, never
performed)
1798–99
Unknown
Das Waldmädchen, J.
Anh. 1
Freiberg (Saxony), 24
November 1800
Romantischekomische Oper, 2
acts
August to
November
1800
Karl Ritter von Steinsberg
Peter Schmoll und seine
Nachbarn, J. 8
Augsburg,
March 1803
Singspiel
1801–02
J. Türk[e],
after C. G. Cramer
1804–05
Johann Gottlieb Rhode,
after J. K. A. Musäus,
Volksmärchen der Deutschen
Rübezahl (incomplete),
J.44-6
Silvana , J. 87
Frankfurt,
16 September 1810
Romantische
heroischkomische Oper,
3 acts
1808–10;
Franz Karl Hiemer, based
on Steinsberg’s Das
revised
Waldmädchen
1812;
revised 1817
Abu Hassan, J. 106
Munich, Residenz,
4 June 1811
Singspiel, 1 act
1810–11
Franz Karl Hiemer, after
The Thousand and One
Nights
Clive Brown, “Weber, Carl Maria (Friedrich Ernst) von,” in Grove Music Online
ed. L. Macy (Accessed 30 May 2002), http://www.grovemusic.com .
22
84
TITLE AND
LOCATION/DATE OF
PREMIERE
COMPOSER’S
DESIGNATION
DATES
LIBRETTIST
Der Freischütz, J. 277
Berlin,
Schauspielhaus,
18 June 1821
Romantische
Oper, 3 acts
1817–21
Johann Friedrich Kind,
after J. A. Apel and F.
Laun, Gespensterbuch
Die drei Pintos, Anh. 5
(incomplete)
Komische Opera,
3
1820–21
Theodor Hell, after C.
Seidel, Der Brautkampf
Euryanthe, J. 291
Vienna, Kärntnertor,
25 Oct 1823
Grosse heroischromantische
Oper, 3 acts
1822–23
Helmina von Chezy, after
L’Histoire du très noble et
chevalireux prince Gérard
Oberon, J. 306
London, Covent
Garden,
12 April 1826
Romantische
Oper, 3 acts
1825–26
R. Planché, after C. M.
Wieland
85
CHAPTER 5
HYPOTHETICAL SYNOPSIS OF
Access to the complete score and orchestra parts for Weber’s early opera Das
Waldmädchen has been tightly controlled by Russian authorities since its discovery in
2000, preventing this author from personally examining the documents. Consequently,
Gubkina’s published description provides the only authoritative information about the
content and condition of these documents. 1 Details provided in Gubkina’s article, along
with other readily available secondary sources, allow the following synopsis of the
characters and events depicted in the opera’s two acts.2
The Chemnitz playbill provides the names of each of the characters in the opera.3
The same names appear in the St. Petersburg score, but with two variant spellings for
Witzlingo: Wirzlingo and Wizlinger.4 The named roles, along with brief descriptions of
their interrelationships, appear in Table 5.1.
Repeated letters and e-mails to the Mariinsky Theater Library, its director Maria
Scherbakova, and other scholars who might have access to this document, including
Gubkina, have all gone unanswered. The following discussion relies on information
from Gubkina, “Notizen.”
1
Pasqué, II: 26; Lorenz, “Waldmädchen.” See also H. J. Moser, ed., Carl Maria
von Weber: Musikalische Werke, erste kritische Gesamtausgabe, ii/2, ed. Willibald Kaehler
(Augsburg: Dr. Benno Filser, 1928), 252–53.
2
3
The complete text of the playbill appears in Chapter 3 of this document.
That character is identified as “Witzlingo” in Lorenz, “Waldmädchen,” VIII,
which relied on the Chemnitz playbill for that information.
4
86
Table 5.1
Dramatis personae in Das Waldmädchen (1800)5
ROLE
VOICE
DESCRIPTION
Fürst Arbander
baritone
Mathilde
soprano
Arbander’s daughter
Printz Sigmund von Mathusien6
tenor
Engaged to Mathilde
Fürst Hertor
tenor7
Mathilde’s secret
love, and the son of
Arbander’s sworn
Enemy
Ritter Wensky
unknown8
Rechter
spoken role
a forester
Silwana
(dancer)
a mute forest maiden
Kunigunde
soprano
Mathilde’s
Chambermaid
Konrad Wizlingo
baritone
Fürst Hertor’s stable
Master
Krips 9
baritone
Sigmund’s servant
Italics indicate roles derived from the St. Petersburg score and orthographically
verified by Gubkina.
5
6
Steinsberg sang this role at both Freiberg and Chemnitz.
7
“Hartor” in Lorenz, “Waldmädchen,” VIII.
8
Gubkina’s incipits do not include music for this character.
9
“Krieps” in Lorenz, “Waldmädchen,” VIII.
87
The Chemnitz playbill also lists “women at the tournament and torch dance,
many squires and knights” (Damen beym Turnier und Fackeltanz , viele Knappen und
Reisige), but the St. Petersburg score lists only “hunters and local people” (Jäger und Volk)
as supernumeraries. 10 This discrepancy might be attributed to the different functions of
the two documents, i.e., the purpose of the playbill was to entice audiences to attend
performances, while the purpose of the score was to notate the composition and guide a
conductor. Steinsberg, as company manager, likely provided the text for the playbill,
with the goal of achieving a profitable residency. Weber might have been inclined to
designate the actions of the supernumeraries more briefly on a score.11
The aristocratic titles of several of the characters (Fürst, Printz, etc.), along with
the particular wedding customs portrayed throughout the opera (a hunt, a tournament,
a torch dance, etc.), all of which are typical of historical fantasies, suggest an earlier
period in German history. Das Waldmädchen culminates with a tournament and torch
dance, ritual celebratory events from medieval times that are still practiced in some
German regions. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries tournaments and torch
dances were popular in Prague, Vienna, Munich, Salzburg, and Dresden. 12 They
marked important political occasions, such as the weddings of German heads of state.
The tournament itself was a fully choreographed procession of noblemen and
noblewomen on horseback, accompanied by music. The torch dance, a spectacular firelit procession and dance in three parts and scored for military band, typically followed
10
Pasqué, II: 26, f.n., Lorenz, “Waldmädchen,” VIII; Gubkina, “Notizen,” 38.
This assumes only that the St. Petersburg score is either in Weber’s own hand
or possibly a copy that was based on the original score from the Freiberg and Chemnitz
productions. Steinsberg’s com pany consisted of approximately 30 singers, actors, and
dancers, an indication that the number of supernumeraries for the productions at
Freiberg and Chemnitz would have been relatively modest.
11
Ilka Peter, Der Salzburger Fackeltanz: zur Geschichte eines Tanzes (Salzburg:
Salzburger Druckerei, 1979), 7–16.
12
88
the tournament, commencing in the evening hours. Its music is comprised of a loud first
and third section, with a soft trio as the second section.
Scholars have long assumed that the events depicted in Das Waldmädchen are the
same as those portrayed in Silvana , primarily because we know that librettist F. C.
Hiemer simply reworked Steinsberg’s original libretto to Das Waldmädchen at Weber’s
request. Gubkina’s description of the St. Petersburg score supports that assertion.13 A
comparison of the roles and voice types found in Silvana with those found in Das
Waldmädchen, for example, reveals a few minor differences in some characters’ names.
The role of Adelhart (bass) in Silvana corresponds to the role of Fürst Arbander (baritone)
in Das Waldmädchen. Similarly, the role of Mechtilde (soprano) corresponds to the role of
Mathilde (soprano); Count Rudolf (tenor) corresponds to the role of Printz Sigmund von
Mathusien (tenor); Krips (bass) corresponds to Krips (baritone); Albert (tenor)
corresponds to the role of Ritter Wensky (tenor); and Silwana herself (danced role), quite
obviously, corresponds to the original role of Silwana (danced role). In light of the
similarities between the two sets of characters, along with the fact that Weber even reused a few of the musical numbers from Das Waldmädchen when he composed a new
score for Silvana , at least general congruence between the plots of the two operas has
been assumed in the following synopsis. The story events depicted in the two operas
are not presented in the same order, however. Indeed, Silvana is in three acts, while Das
Waldmädchen was written in only two acts. Text incipits for each musical number were
taken from Gubkina’s description of the St. Petersburg score and helped to inform the
ordering of events depicted in the synopsis. Additional information was gleaned from
the settings and events depicted in the score to Silvana .
13
89
Act 1
Scene 1. A remote forest setting, near the opening of a cave.
A party of huntsmen enters the stage from all directions. Hunting horns sound
as the opening chorus begins, No. 1, “Jaget hin und jaget her, durch die Berge kreutz
und quer” (“Hunt here and hunt there, crisscrossing through the mountains”).14 The
festive entourage is celebrating the impending marriage of Printz Sigmund von
Mathusien (tenor) to Mathilde (soprano), daughter of Fürst Arbander (bass), an
important nobleman. The hunters disperse, but Sigmund’s servant, Krips (baritone),
who is secretly afraid of animals, remains behind. Krips sings a humorous aria, No. 2,
“Ein Mensch der viel Kuerage hat ist auch gewiß nicht dumm” (“A man who has much
courage is of course not stupid).15 Krips postures as though he is a brave hunter in the
following instrumental No. 3, “Marcia.” His imaginings end abruptly when his master
returns and points out that a strange creature is emerging from the cave. It is a woman,
curiously attired in furs and leaves. Startled by the presence of the men, she retreats into
the cave. Sigmund instructs his servant to bring the woman to him , No. 4, Duet: “Nimm
deine Pfeil und geh hinein, bring mir das Mädchen raus” (“Take your arrow and go
inside, bring the young woman out to me”). Krips, however, convinced that the
creature is a large bear, not a woman, protests. Eventually, he reluctantly complies. As
Krips approaches the opening of the cave, he implores himself to be brave, No. 5, “Ein
In Silvana this scene includes a quartet of onstage horns. Although there are
only two horn parts for the St. Petersburg score, Gubkina notes that in this number “the
sound colors of the forest are depicted by the horns, including the typical horn
entrances.” Gubkina, “Notizen,” 43.
14
Steinsberg adds an interesting and comical linguistic element to the libretto
with the word Kuerage . It appears to be a Germanized spelling for the French word
courage. Avoiding the German word Mut, he has instead imposed German linguistic
characteristics on the French word courage (i.e., the French c was replaced by a German k,
and the French ou was replaced by the German ue). The French word courage was
commonly used by Germans at this time, but since transliteration was not possible it
was spelled the French way. The misspelling is intentional, for although no German
15
90
Bärenhäuter nimmt reiß aus und zahlt das Fersengeld” (“A bearskinner takes leave and
takes to his heels”). Seeing for himself that the creature is indeed a woman, he proudly
brings Silwana to Sigmund. The woman is mute and communicates only with gestures.
Sigmund is baffled by her behavior, wondering if perhaps she is a forest nymph. He
soon finds her timid and gentle ways quite fascinating. Knowing that he must return to
Arbander’s village to marry Mathilde, yet unwilling to leave the young woman, he
devises a plan. As the hunting party reassembles, he spikes Silwana’s drink with a
sleeping potion, then serenades her to sleep, No. 6, Printz and Chor der Jäger: “Holdes
Mädchen der Natur scheu Dich nicht und trinke nur” (“Lovely maiden of nature, don’t
be fearful, only drink”). Unconscious, Silwana is then carried off toward Sigmund’s
estate as the scene concludes.
Scene 2. Arbander’s village. Wedding preparations are underway.
Arbander gently reminds his daughter, Mathilde, that it is her duty to obey him
and marry Printz Sigmund, even though she does not love him, No. 7, “Handle stets
nach meinem Willen, dies befiehlt der Vater dir” (“Always act according to my wishes,
this your father commands you”). Arbander is not aware that Mathilde is secretly in
love with Printz Hertor, the son of his sworn enemy. Arbander reveals that his other
daughter, Ottilie, was kidnapped by his enemy (Hertor’s father), and that Mathilde’s
marriage to Printz Sigmund is now the only way to restore the family’s fortune.
Mathilde’s chambermaid Kunigunde, aware of her mistress’s torn feelings, lightheartedly tells Mathilde that her marriage to Sigmund will never work out as long as she
is in love with someone else, No. 8, “Wer Weiber hüten will, der muß gar früh
aufstehn.” (“Whoever wants to keep an eye on wives must surely get up early”). During
an ensuing quartet Mathilde’s mood brightens as Kunigunde teases her, No. 9, Mathilde,
Kunigunde, Hertor, and Wirlingo: “Ist es möglich dass ich glaube, ist es Hertor den ich
spelling for the French ge sound exists, the first syllable could certainly have been
spelled Ku, not Kue .
91
seh” (“Could that possibly be Hertor I see?”). Krips arrives and greets his friend
Wirlingo, Hertor’s stable master, confiding that he, in turn, has a secret crush on
Kunigunde, No. 10, “Ha nun bin ich desparad, nur gemach Herr Kamerad (“Ha, now I
am made desperate, my comrade,”). A tournament is held. Hertor is present, but he
must flee and find a place to hide from Arbander, who despises him . Mathilde laments
her unhappy future in the act’s closing aria, No. 11, “Hör o Himmel, hör die Klagen”
(“Hear, o heavens, hear the cries”), as the first act ends.
Act 2
Scene 1. The remote forest setting, near Silwana’s cave.
Caught in a violent thunderstorm , Hertor and Wirlingo seek shelter, No. 12,
“Schrecklich tobt der Stürme sausen, ängstlich ist des Donners Brausen” (“The roaring
gale whistles terribly, the thunder’s roar is frightening“). They find Silwana’s cave and
go inside. Unexpectedly, they meet Rechter, an older forester who has secretly been
caring for Silwana for many years. A dialogue ensues and Rechter tells the men
Silwana’s true identity; Silwana is the kidnapped Ottilie (No. 13, Zwischen Musik ).
Scene 2. Inside Prinz Sigmund’s quarters.
Silwana awakens. Sigmund declares his love to her, asking if she also loves him,
No. 14, “Sprich o Mädchen, liebst du mich eben so als wie ich Dich?” (“Speak, o maiden,
do you love me as much as I love you?”). Instead of speaking, she dances and gestures
affirmatively. Overjoyed, Sigmund tells Krips to deliver a message to Arbander: his
marriage to Mathilde will not take place. With obvious dread Krips takes his leave and
goes to deliver the scandalous message, No. 15, “Die Lieb ist blind, izt seh’ ichs ein, hat
nicht ein Gran Verstand” (“Love is blind, now I see, without a grain of intelligence”).
92
Scene 3. Inside Arbander’s estate.
Mathilde, still mourning her dutiful fate, responds poignantly to a written appeal
from her father. Reluctantly, she agrees to obey him and marry Printz Sigmund, No. 16,
“Ich will durch mein ganzes Leben ihn erfüllen, meinen Schwur” (“I will for my entire
life fulfill my oath”). Krips arrives with the news that Sigmund refuses to go through
with the marriage. Furious, Arbander and Mathilde join with Krips in a comical trio of
outrage, No. 17, “Diese Frechheit, dieser Trug, diese Schandthat, diese Lug” (“This
impertinence, this deception! This disgrace, this lie!”). Believing that some strange
woman from the forest has deliberately sabotaged the long-planned marriage, Arbander
declares his revenge and sentences Silwana to death.
Scene 4. At a public square; a crowd has assembled in anticipation of Silwana’s
execution.
Powerless to save Silwana, Sigmund is overcome with sorrow. Rechter arrives,
calling out Silwana’s name. He pleads for help finding her, explaining that he has
secretly cared for her since she was a tiny child. Upon realizing that Silwana has been
sentenced to die, Rechter explains that the maiden’s real name is not Silwana, and that
she is not mute but is merely honoring a vow of silence that she has kept since
childhood at his urging. Arbander realizes that Silwana is his long-lost daughter, Otillie.
Overjoyed, Arbander embraces Silwana/Otillie. He releases Sigmund from the marriage
promise to Mathilde and grants permission for Silwana to marry Hertor, since Otillie has
been returned alive and all is now forgiven. Enraptured at witnessing such a turn of
events, Krips sings a comical duet with Kunigunde, No. 18, “So komm du mein
Liebchen, o komm denn mein Schatz, und gebe dem Krips gen ein zärtlichen Schmatz”
(“So come my little love, oh come then my darling, and give your Krips a sweet little
kiss!”). The entire company joins in an elaborate procession, torch dance, and final
chorus (No. 19, Marcia ; No. 20, Der Fakel -Tanz ; and No. 21, Schlußchor) “Heil dem Edlen
Ehepaar, Wonne, Segen, Glück begleite” (“Praise to the noble wedding couple! May
pleasure, blessings, and good fortune accompany them”), as the opera concludes.
93
CHAPTER 6
PRIMARY SOURCES FOR
The music to Das Waldmädchen is preserved in two score fragments
(Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Weberiana I:1), hereafter referred
to as the fragments, and a complete score and set of orchestra parts in St. Petersburg
(Gosudarstvenny akademichesky Mariinsky teatr Central'naya muzykalnaya biblioteka,
RF-Sprob, Sign. I.1.W.373), hereafter referred to as the St. Petersburg score.
Reasoning that the designation Das Waldmädchen on the cover of the first volume
of the St. Petersburg score corresponds with the title of the opera as it premiered at
Freiberg in 1800, Gubkina asserts that the St. Petersburg score probably represents the
original Freiberg-Chemnitz version of the opera.1 This assertion is problematic,
however, because the date 1801 also appears on the cover of volume 1. It is possible that
the date was added to the Freib erg score in 1801. Or perhaps the St. Petersburg score is
a copy (and possibly to som e extent a revision) of the Freiberg original. Weber himself,
having little known income in 1801, might have made his own copy or copies of the
score. Clearly, the previously mentioned fragments indicate that the score was copied at
some point. Moreover, in a series of letters to Joseph Kirms, Intendant of the court
theater at Weimar, Weber’s father explicitly stated that the score to Das Waldmädchen
was copied when he wrote, on 28 December 1800:
Gubkina, “Notizen,” 38. Gubkina notes that a critical edition of the St.
Petersburg score is forthcoming. It is sure to provide more comprehensive information
about this source and Weber’s developing compositional process.
1
94
The score of my son’s opera has already been sent out to be copied and
will be delivered together with the book as soon as possible, and because
for me the point is more to bring fame to this young man than to present
personal gain, it will be done with the greatest care, and, as for cost, if it
brings nothing more than the copying charge I shall be content, but
recommend that you have it performed, Your Excellency, as I also
beseech you to engage my well-behaved and extraordinarily calm
child . . . ”2
In another letter, dated 24 April 1801, Franz Anton states that a copy of the score
to the first act of Das Waldmädchen, along with the book (presumably Steinsberg’s
complete text) had already been sent to Weimar:
Since I already sent the score to the first act of “Waldmädchen” to your
excellency on 21 February on the post wagon from Freiberg, along with
the book also, but have not yet had the honor of an answer from you or
Herrn Kapellmeister Kranz by virtue of which I might learn whether it
was found acceptable and the second act should also be sent, or whether
it was found disagreeable and should be returned; so I humbly request
that you please honor me with an answer in the near future, as I have
decided to go to Chemnitz soon, and then to return to Munich after
fourteen days there. With highest esteem and com plete devotion, I await
word from Your Excellency.3
“Die Partitur meines Sohnes Oper ist bereits zum copiren übergeben und wird
sobald möglich nebst dem Buche dazu übersandt werden, und da mir mehr um die
Bekanntmachung dieses jungen Menschen als um Gewinnst gegenwärtig zu thun ist, so
wird er auch mit dem geringsten Douceur, und wenn es auch nicht mehr als die copial
Gebühren träfe, schon zufrieden seyn, Ich empfehle die Aufführung derselben Euer
Wohlgeboren bestens, so wie ich inständigst bitte, für das engagement meines so brav
und ganz außerordentlich ruhigen Kind . . . ” Pasqué, Goethe’s Theaterleitung in Weimar,
32.
2
“Da ich die Partitur des ersten Aktes des “Waldmädchen” bereits unterm 21.
Februar a. c. mit dem Postwagen von Freyberg an Euer Wohlgeboren nebst dem Buche
dazu abgesandt habe, bis dato wieder von Denenselben, wieder von dem Hrn.
Kapellmeister Kranz mit einer nachrichtlichen Antwort beehrt worden, vermöge
welcher ich erfahren hätte, ob solche acceptiret und der zweite Akt auch überschickt
oder sie als nicht angenommen retour erhalten sollte; also bitte gehorsamst, mich mit
einer beliebigen Antwort um so mehr baldigst anhero nachher Chemnitz zu beehren, als
ich in Zeit von 14 Tagen nachher München zu retourniren entschlossen bin, mit
vorzüglichster Hochachtung harrende Euer Wohlgeboren ganz ergebenster Diener F. A.
B. v. Weber.” Pasqué, “Goethe’s Theaterleitung in Weimar,” 33.
3
95
On 17 May 1801 he wrote to Kirms again, this time from Chemnitz:
Your Excellency must have completely forgotten that I wrote on 24 April
for an answer concerning the opera Das Waldmädchen. I am concerned at
this point at having received no answer at all since 14 February, or even
to have the slightest news regarding the first act and book of the
aforementioned opera. And since tomorrow I will leave here and travel
to Munich, so respectfully I ask that you honor me with an answer in
Munich. With every conceivable esteem and complete loyalty, yours,
F. A. B. v. Weber."4
Apparently, then, a copy of Act 1 was sent to Kirms on 21 February 1801, but
Kirms never acknowledged it. It can therefore be assumed that the copy of the second
act mentioned in Franz Anton’s letter of 24 April was never sent to Weimar. It may have
remained in the Webers’ possession when they moved to Munich on 18 May 1801. More
information is needed to determine how, when, and where these materials were next
distributed, but it remains relatively certain that as of 17 May 1801 there were at least
two scores to Das Waldmädchen: the original Freiberg score, book, and parts, with
corrections and revisions, and a copy of the first act and book to Das Waldmädchen at
Weimar. A possible dispersion of manuscripts to Das Waldmädchen is as follows:
Original Freiberg Score
Score, book, and parts, with corrections and revisions
Copy 1
Score and book, possibly dated 1801
Act 1 and book sent to Kirms at Weimar, 21 February 1801
Act 2 remained with Weber and his father on 17 May 1801.
“Euer Wohlgeboren müssen mich ganz vergessen haben, da ich auf mein
unterm 24 April an dieselben erlassenes, eine Antwort wegen der Oper das
Waldmädchen betreffend bis hierhin mit gar keiner Antwort so wenig als auch, die
bereits unterm 14 Februar an dieselben abgesandten ersten Akt nebst Buch dieser
besagten Opera die geringste Nachricht erhalten habe, und da ich morgen von hier
nachher München reise, so bitte gehorsamst, mich mit einer Antwort nachher München
gütigst zu beehren. Mit aller erdenklicher Hochachtung Dero ganz gehorsamster,
Deiner F. A. B. v. Weber." Pasqué, “Goethe’s Theaterleitung in Weimar,” 33.
4
96
Score Fragments, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin,
Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Weberiana I:1
The fragments themselves are adjacent leaves from an autograph score. They
contain music from Act 2 Scene 2 of the opera, specifically the middle section and end of
Mathilde’s aria No. 16, “Ich will durch mein ganzes Leben ihn erfüllen, meinen Schwur”
(“I will for my entire life fulfill my oath”), and the beginning and middle section of the
“rage” trio by Mathilde, Arbander, and Krips, No. 17, “Diese Frechheit, dieser Trug,
diese Schandthat, diese Lug” (“This impertinence, this deception! This disgrace, this
lie!”). 5
The fragments are in small upright format, written in ink, an d preserved on
fairly thin but sturdy paper that measures 26 x 21.5 cm.6 Their authenticity is
undisputed, for the handwriting matches two letters that Weber wrote to his teacher
Johann Peter Heuschkel in 1797 and 1798.7 In addition, several aspects of the musical
notation correspond to the score of Weber’s third opera, Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn,
(J. 8, 1803), including the representation of dynamics piano and forte as po and fo ,
respectively. 8 Corrections, also in Weber’s hand, appear throughout the fragments
(some in pencil), and there are also a few corrections in a different, unidentified hand.9
Transcriptions of the fragments were published in the 1926 critical edition of Weber’s
early operas edited by Alfred Lorenz.10
Lorenz, “Waldmädchen,” X.
5
Eveline Bartlitz, Carl Maria von Weber: Autographenverzeichnis (Berlin: Deutsche
Staatsbibliothek, 1986), 14. Hereafter, Bartlitz, Autographenverzeichnis.
6
Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Mus ep. C. M. v. Weber 8 and 9 .
7
8
Bartlitz, Autographenverzeichnis, 14.
Lorenz speculates that these corrections may have been made by Weber’s
father, although a positive identification of the second hand has not been established.
Lorenz, “Waldmädchen,” VII.
9
10
Lorenz, “Waldmadchen.”
97
The fragments do not include the beginning of the soprano aria No. 16, which
Gubkina identifies in the St. Petersburg score as No. 16, Recitativo con Aria , Mathilde. In
both sources this number is in D major and in common time. Gubkina provides only the
following text incipit for the opening line: “Ich will durch mein ganzes Leben ihn
erfüllen, meinen Schwur.” The text from the fragment of No. 16, along with an English
translation, follows:
schrecken der Natur,
werd’ ich dennoch nicht erbeben.
horror of nature, nevertheless I
will not shudder.
Hartorn kann ich nicht verlassen,
mag geschehen, was da will,
wär der Todt auch selbst mein Ziel.
Hartorn kann ich nich (sic) verlassen.*
Hartor I cannot forget,
come what may,
even were death itself my goal,
Hartor I cannot forget.
Keinem Menschen soll’s gelingen,
mich zu dieser Eh’ zu zwingen,
wär der Todt auch selbst mein Ziel.
No one will succeed
in forcing me to marry,
whatever happens,
even were death itself my goal.
Ich will durch mein ganzes Leben*
Ihn erfüllen, meinen Schwur,
Wär der Todt auch selbst mein Ziel,
Ja, wär der Todt auch selbst mein Ziel.
Wollt’ ich lieber gleich erblassen.*
I will for my entire life
fulfill my oath,
whatever happens,
even were death itself my goal.
Yes, even were death itself my
goal. I would rather pine right
away.
(* long melismatic passages)
The text from the fragment of the beginning of the trio, No. 17 (Arbander, Krips,
Mathilde), corresponds with Gubkina’s incipit of No. 17 Terzetto (Mathilde, Arbander,
Krips) in the St. Petersburg score. In both sources, this number is in D major and alla
breve . The complete text from the fragment, along with an English translation, follows:
98
Arbander:
Diese Frechheit, dieser Trug,
diese Schandthat, diese Lug
fühlt mein Herz mit Wuth und Groll.
Arbander:
This impertinence, this deception,
this disgrace, this lie,
fills my heart with rage and anger.
Krips:
Hui! Der Fürst ist grimmig toll.
Krips:
Yikes! The Prince is frighteningly
mad!
Mathilde:
Zürnet nicht, schenkt Gnade mir,
Ich kann wahrlich nichts dafür.
Mathilde:
Don’t be angry, show mercy,
I can indeed do nothing about it.
(tutti, Mathilde-Arbander-Krips)
Mathilde:
Zürnet nicht, schenkt Gnade mir,
Ich kann wahrlich nichts dafür,
Schenkt Gnade mir,
Ich kann währlich nichts dafür.
(tutti, Mathilde-Arbander-Krips)
Mathilde:
Don’t be angry, show mercy,
Show me mercy,
Arbander:
Diese Frechheit, dieser Trug,
Diese schandthat, diese Lug,
füllt mein Herz mit Wuth und Groll.
Krips:
Hui! Der Fürst ist grimmig toll.
Arbander:
This impertinence, this deception,
this disgrace, this lie,
fills my heart with rage and anger.
Krips:
Yikes! The Prince is frighteningly
mad.
(Solo)
Arbander:
Wer hat diesen Brief gebracht?
(Solo)
Arbander:
Who brought this message?
(Solo)
Krips:
Ich bin tod, wenn ihr es sagt,
(Solo)
Krips:
I am dead when this is told,
(Arbander-Krips, together)
Arbander:
Wer hat diesen Brief gebracht?
Krips:
Ich bin tod, wenn ihr es sagt,
Arbander:
Who has brought this message?
Krips:
I am dead when this is told,
99
(Solo)
Mathilde:
Fragt das nicht, ich bitt’ euch drum .
(Solo)
Mathilde:
Don’t ask that, I beg you!
(Solo)
Krips:
Stille, still! Seid lieber Stumm!
(Solo)
Krips:
Quiet, quiet! Rather be silent!
(Solo)
Arbander:
Sag mir gleich den Kupler an,
daß ich ihn bestrafen kann.
Hängen lass’ ich diesen Schuft.
(Solo)
Arbander:
Tell me the go-between
so I can punish him .
I’ll have the cad hanged.
Arbander:
Hängen lass; ich diesen Schuft!
Krips:
Ja, da hätt’ ich frische Luft.
Arbander:
I’ll have the cad hanged!
Krips:
Yes, there I’d have fresh air.
(Solo)
Krips: (to Mathilde)
Fräulein, ach, ich bitte euch,
Macht mir jetzt kein’ dummen Streich!
(Solo)
Krips: (to Mathilde)
Miss, oh I beg you,
Don’t make me the victim of a
stupid prank now!
(Solo)
Mathilde: (to Arbander)
Vater, schenkt mir diese Frage
(Solo)
Mathilde: (to Arbander)
Father, give me (excuse me from)
this question
And I will in this situation
give myself to your will
and conquer my true heart,
Und ich will in dieser Lage
Mich nach eurem Willen fügen
Und mein treues Herz besiegen,
(Mathilde-Krips, together)
Mathilde:
Meine Hand dem Prinzen geben,
Dem Prinzen ge-. . . (end of fragment)
Krips:
Gott sey Dank, ich bleib’ am Leben,
Ja, ich bleib’ am le. . . (end of fragment)
100
(Mathilde-Krips, together)
Mathilde:
My hand to the Prince I’ll give,
to the Prince I’ll gi. . . (end of
fragment)
Krips:
God be thanked, I remain alive,
Yes, I remain. . . (end of fragment)
The St. Petersburg Score and Orchestra Parts,
Gosudarstvenny akademichesky Mariinsky teatr Central'naya
muzykalnaya biblioteka, RF-Sprob, Sign. I.1.W.373
According to Gubkina, the St. Petersburg score and orchestra parts are well
preserved, with only slight damage at the edges of the leaves. 11 The score, in two
volumes, contains the overture and 21 numbers. Example 6.3, at the end of this chapter,
provides incipits for each number in Das Waldmädchen, RF-Sprob, Sign. I, 1. W.373. Both
score volumes are in oblong format and measure approximately 21.5 x 27.5 cm. The last
10–15 leaves of the first volume have some noticeable bleed-through, probably caused
by invading moisture (slight on leaves 355–70, heavier on leaves 372–82). All of the text
is readable, however. Volume 1 contains the Overture and Act 1 (Nos. 1–11), and
comprises 382 numbered pages (390 pages total) bound between blue paper covers.
Volume 2 contains Act 2 and comprises 214 pages bound in a lighter blue cover. The
orchestra parts form a separate bundle of twenty individual paper-covered parts with
the leaves wrapped together and fully enclosed in strong blue paper.
Gubkina asserts that the characteristics of the handwriting support the
possibility that it is Weber’s original score from Freiberg, but she does not specifically
identify the single hand in which most of the manuscript is written. The handwriting
alternates between darker and lighter shades of the same ink. There are corrections to
several numbers (in a different hand or hands), indicating that this is a working copy,
not an untouched fair copy. It is not clear when, where, or by whom the corrections
were made. Page creases and re-pagination indicate that the score was used for at least
one performance.
The title page reads, “Das Wald Mädchen /Eine /Komische Oper /in /Zwey
Aufzügen /von /Ritter von Steinsberg /in Musik gesetzt /von /Carl Marie von
Weber.”12 The pages of volume 1 are numbered in both ink and pencil, with the
11
RF-Sprob, Sign. I.1.W.373, as described in Gubkina, “ Notizen.”
12
Underlining indicates larger handwriting. Slashes indicate line breaks.
101
numeral 1 appearing in ink on the upper right-hand corner of the title page. The
overture begins on page 3. The pagination continues in pencil from page 2 through page
72, with the following exceptions in ink: pages 3, 17–19, 21, and 23–24. The remaining
page numbers (73–382) are in ink. Between pages 132 and 133 there are eight
unnumbered pages (four leaves), upon which are written No. 5, Krip’s aria, “Ein
Bärenhäuter nimmt reiß aus und zahlt das Fersengeld” (“A bearskinner takes leave and
takes to his heels”).
Five different paper types are found within the two score volumes. Paper type 1
is thick and light-colored, with a particularly rough and porous surface. It has ten
vertically laid staves per page, at intervals of 2.75 cm. The watermark for paper type 1 is
a fleur de lis that measures approximately 8.5 cm long and about 4 cm wide and includes
the maker’s mark “SK” and sometimes a ligature joining “S” with “T” and “K” (2.5 x 3
cm high). The watermark can be made out on the top or bottom of some of the leaves.
Paper type 2 is darker-colored and has no discernable watermark . Paper type 3 is
similar in thickness to type 1, but it has 8 horizontal staves per page (2.75 cm apart) and
no discernable watermark . Paper type 4 is darker and smoother than type 1, with 8
oblong staves per page (measuring 2.45 cm) and an unreadable watermark with an
unclear figure. Paper type 5 appears to have been used principally for insertions or to
reorder certain sections of music. Its leaves are smaller than the other types and are
found in two distinct sizes; one measures 20.3 (20.8) x 26.5 cm; the second measures 21.2
x 27.2 (27.6) cm. The rougher texture of paper type 5 is also easily distinguished from
the smoother texture of type 4. Its irregularly spaced staves are in vertical format, and it
has an unreadable watermark.
The arrangement of musical numbers in volume 1 may have been significantly
altered, for it seems originally to have contained twelve numbers. No. 9 was changed to
No. 8, No. 10 was changed to No. 9, No. 11 was changed to No. 10, and No. 12 was
changed to No. 11. The renumbering may have been caused by the removal of an entire
number, or it may simply reflect a writing error. As previously noted, No. 5 (Aria , Krips,
“Ein Bärenhäuter nimmt reiß aus und zahlt das Fersengeld”) appears to have been
102
inserted between pages 132 and 133 (between Nos. 4 and 6). The pagination between
the end of No. 4 (from page 132) and the beginning of No. 6 (page 133) is continuous,
and not one of the subsequent page numbers beyond page 132 has been altered. Clearly,
the aria was not written down in the sequential order that its placement between Nos. 4
and 6 suggests, since it is a different paper type with unnumbered pages.13
With the insertion of the four unnumbered leaves of No. 5, volume 1 comprises
390 pages, 382 of which are numbered sequentially. Paper type 1 is used for the first 150
leaves of music (300 numbered pages), which includes the title page, all of the overture,
Nos. 1–4 and Nos. 6–10, and two sections of No. 11. Pages 301–326, which comprise a
portion of No. 11, are on paper type 2. The final 56 pages of volume 1 (pages 327–382),
comprising the last portion of No. 11, are on paper type 3, as is No. 5. The use of paper
type 3 for the last portion of No. 11 and all of No. 5 suggests that the composition of No.
5 was concurrent with or at least close in time to the final revisions to No. 11. The
chronological order of the revisions to No. 11 on paper types 2 and 3 is unclear, but since
the pagination of those pages is continuous one can safely conclude that the pagination
in ink was completed before the insertion (probably a replacement) of No. 5, but after
the revisions to No. 11.
Table 6.1 summarizes the contents of volume 1 of the St. Petersburg score, as
described by Gubkina, including page numbers, paper types, tempi, keys, meters,
character designations, titles, and text incipits for each number. Parentheses are used to
indicate numbers that were re-numbered, inserted, or replaced, as described above.
13
103
Table 6.1
Arrangement, Pagination, and Paper Types in
Volume 1 of the St. Petersburg score to Das Waldmädchen
(RF-Sprob, Sign. I.1.W.373)
PAGE NUMBERS
CONTENTS
Act 1
1
3–
Title Page
Overtura
PAPER TYPE TEMPO, KEY, METER, TEXT
1
Adagio, D major, C time
No. 1
Introduction
Choro, Jäger
1
Allegro, F major, 3/8 time
“Jaget hin und jaget her;
Durch die Berge kreutz und
quer”
No. 2
Aria , Krips
1
Allegro maestoso, D major,
C time “Ein Mensch
er viel Kuerage hat ist auch
gewiß nicht dumm”
No. 3
Marcia
1
C major, 2/4
–132
No. 4
Duetto,
Printz, Krips
1
Moderato, C major, alla breve ;
[Printz] “Nimm deine Pfeil
und geh hinein, bring mir
das Mädchen raus”
unnumbered
insertion
(No. 5)
Aria , Krips
3
Andante , F major, 2/4;
“Ein Bärenhäuter nimmt
reißaus und Zahlt das
Fersengeld”
133–
No. 6
Prinz, Chor
der Jäger
1
Allegro – Sempre piano ,
C major, 3/8; Bb major
at chorus entry
104
PAGE NUMBERS
–300
301–326
327–382
CONTENTS
No. 7
Aria , Arbander
1
Allegro maestoso , Eb major,
C time “Handle stets
nach meinem Willen dies
befiehlt der Vater dir”
No. 8 (9)
Aria , Kunigunde
1
Andante , G major, C time;
“Wer Weiber hüten will,
der muß gar früh aufstehn”
No. 9 (10)
1
Quartetto,
Mathilde, Kunigunde,
Hertor, Wirlingo
Vivace , Bb major, C time;
[Mathilde] “Ist es möglich
dass ichs glaube ist es Hertor
den ich seh”
No. 10 (11)
Duetto,
Wirlingo, Krips
1
Vivace , C major, alla breve;
[Krips] “Ha nun bin ich
desparad” [Wirlingo]
“Nur gemach Herr Kamerad”
No. 11 (12)
Finale.
Aria , Mathilde
1
Amoroso , A major, 6/8;
“Hör o Himmel, Hör die Klagen”
2
3
Volume 2 has no title page. Its pagination is in ink throughout, with the numeral
1 appearing on the first page (which is the beginning of No. 12). Paper types 1, 4, and 5
are intermingled within this volume. Type 1 is used for most of No. 12 (from the
beginning of the volume to page 16), for all of No. 17 (pages 125–154), and for all of Nos.
20–21 (to the end of the opera, pages 175–214). Type 4, a darker and smoother paper in
oblong format with 8 horizontal staves per page (measuring 2.45 cm), comprises the end
of No. 12 (pages 17–62), two sections of No. 16 (65–74, 77–124), and all of Nos. 18–19
(pages 155–174). Paper type 5 (vertical format) was used only for pages 63/64 and 75/76,
105
which are insertions to No. 14, Printz’s aria, “Sprich o Mädchen – liebst Du mich ebenso
als wie ich Dich?” Table 6.2 summarizes the contents and organization of volume 2 of
the St. Petersburg score.
Table 6.2
Arrangement, Pagination and Paper Types in Volume 2 of the
PAGE NUMBERS
Act 2
1–16;
17–
CONTENTS
No. 12
Duetto,
Hertor,
Wizlingo
1
4
Allegro , c minor, alla breve;
“Schrecklich tobt der Stürme
saußen, angstlich ist de Donners
Braußen”
No. 13
Zwischen
Musik
4
Andante , D major, 2/4;
62–
63/64 insertion
(original 65–68
pinned together)
75/76 insertion
(original 73–76
pinned together)
–76
No. 14
Aria , Printz
4
5
(4)
4
5
(4)
Andantino -Sempre dolce,
C major, 3/4; “Sprich o
Mädchen, liebst du mich
ebenso als wie ich Dich?”
77–
No. 15
Aria , Krips
4
Moderato , E major, 2/4;
“Die Lieb ist blind, izt seh’
ichs ein, hat nicht ein gran
Verstand”
106
Table 6.2 (Continued)
PAGE NUMBERS
CONTENTS
–124
No. 16
Recitativo con
Aria ,
Mathilde
4
A major, C time
“Ich will durch mein ganzen
Leben Ihn erfüllen, meinen
Schwur”
125–154
No. 17
Terzetto,
Mathilde,
Arbander,
Krips
1
Allegro vivace, D major, alle
breve ; “Die-se Frechheit,
dieser Trug, diese
Schandthat, diese Lug”
155–
No. 18
Duetto, Krips,
Kunigunde
4
Allegretto, C major, 6/8;
“So komm du mein Liebchen,
o komm denn mein Schatz,
und gebe dem Krips’gen
ein zärtlichen Schmatz”
–174
No. 19
Marcia
4
C major, 2/4;
175–
No. 20
Der Fakel -Tanz
1
Larghetto , F major, ¾;
–214
No. 21
Schlußchor
1
Allegro , D major, 2/4;
“Heil dem Edlen Ehepaar, Wonne,
Segen, Glück begleite”
There are three major revisions to Act 2. The largest are Nos. 18 and 19 (Duet,
Krips and Kunigunde, and Marcia ), on smoother paper type 4 in oblong format, which
were inserted between No. 17 and Nos. 20–21 (on paper Type 1, in vertical format). The
current No. 18 and No. 19 were originally located in the middle of the second act (as
Nos. 15 and 16). They were subsequently moved to their current position and
renumbered. As a result, the middle of the second act focuses on the sentiments of
107
Mathilde, whose two consecutive numbers (No. 16, Recitative con Aria , and No. 17,
Terzetto, Mathilde, Arbander, and Krips) fall between two contrasting comic numbers
(No. 15, Aria , Krips, and No. 18, Duetto , Krips, Kunigunde). The repagination of Nos. 18
and 19 produced the current pagination of pages 155–174; those ten leaves were
designated originally as pages 77–96.
The second and third major revisions were made to No. 14, Aria, Printz (“Sprich
o Mädchen, liebst du mich ebenso als wie ich Dich?”), an equally important lyrical point
in the opera. It appears that the revisions in this number were related to the challenge of
creating a meaningful dialogue between the Prince, who sings, and Silvana, who
communicates her feelings through mime and gestures. Her actions are accompanied by
a solo oboe. According to Gubkina, Weber incorporated remembrance motives into this
number. The insertion of a single leave in paper type 5, as page 63/64 , follows a cut
from pages 65–68 (type 4), which are pinned together. Paper type 5 was also used for
the inserted leaf 75/76, which follows the cut created when the original pages 73–76
(type 4) were pinned together. The dimensions of the first inserted leaf (type 5) are 20.3
(20.8) x 26.5 cm. The second inserted leaf (type 5) measures 21.2 x 27.2 (27.6) cm. The
inserted leaves were trimmed around their edges to fit within the borders of the existing
pages of the volume, matching the established vertical format of No. 14. The cuts and
insertions to No. 14 occurred after Nos. 18 and 19 were reordered, but before they were
renumbered.
The original arrangement of numbers in Act 2 was: Duetto (Hertor, Witzlingo),
Zwischen-Musik , Aria (Krips), Duetto (Krips, Kunigunde), Marcia , Aria (Printz), Aria
(Mathilde), Terzetto , Fackel -Tanz , Schlußchor . The revised order is: Duetto (Hertor,
Witzlingo), Zwischen-Musik , Aria (Printz), Aria (Krips), Aria (Mathilde), Terzetto
(Mathilde, Arbander, Krips, Duetto (Krips, Kunigunde), Marcia , Fackel -Tanz , Schlußchor.
The large cuts within pages 62 to 76 required additional musical revisions to No.
14, especially on pages 62 and 74. Two of these revisions were written on slips of paper
cut from the original libretto text, which was written on light-colored very wellmaintained paper with nearly black ink in a fully different hand. The revisions were
108
then tacked on to pages 62 and 74, over the original measures they replaced. The paper
slips were secured with four pins of different lengths (from 2.6 to 3.3 cm). As a result, it
is possible to compare the earlier version with the newer version. The first revision
(page 62) replaces the last four beats on the page (measure 99), as shown in Example 6.1.
A second slip of paper replaces the third of five measures on page 74 (at a point
in the aria that is analogous to the first tacked-on revision), enlarging the aria by three
measures. The slip of paper has a fragment of a watermark, possibly the lower portion
of the coat of arms, but it is not sufficient to identify the paper’s maker. Old and new
versions of that revision are shown in Example 6.2.
Earlier reading
Revised reading
Example 6.1
Earlier and Revised Readings of the St. Petersburg Score to Weber’s
Das Waldmädchen, Act 2, No. 14 (Aria, Printz), Measure 99 14
14
The ¾ time signature appears in Gubkina, “Notizen,” 41–42.
109
Earlier reading
Revised reading
Example 6.2
Earlier and Revised Readings of the St. Petersburg Score to Weber’s
Das Waldmädchen, Act 2, No. 14 (Aria, Printz), Measures 156–58
The St. Petersburg score of Waldmädchen was kept together with its accompanying orchestra parts, providing rare insights about Weber’s orchestral scoring at this early
period of his musical development. The set of handwritten orchestra parts was
preserved in the same good condition as the score. The bundle of twenty separate parts
is wrapped completely in a strong blue paper cover. The orchestra comprises parts for
first and second violins, divided (Violino primo No. 1 and No. 2; Violino secondo No. 1 and
No. 2); violas (Viole), cello—bass, divided (Violoncello—Basso No. 1; Basso No. 2); two
flutes (Flauto primo; Flauto secondo); two oboes (Oboe primo; Oboe secondo ); two clarinets
(Clarinetto primo; Clarinetto secondo ); an undesignated number of bassoons (Fagotti); two
110
horns (Corno primo; Corno secondo); two trumpets ( Clarino primo; Clarino secondo); timpani
(Timpano ); and additional unpitched percussion (Tamburo—two separate untitled parts
packaged together). The folder of orchestra parts also includes a string-tied bundle of 9
individual leaves. These appear to be rejected fragments from various individual parts
to the Finale to the opera (Violino Primo , Violino Secondo, Viola , Flauti, Basso , Fagotto, Corni,
among others). Other fragments and enclosures are found with the individual parts.
Descriptions of each individual part follow:
Violino Primo No. 1: Title page, 70 pages; enclosure of 2 pages (No. 15); enclosure
of 2 pages, (Aria , No. 9); (Aria , No. 9½)15
Violino Primo No. 2: Title page, 70 pages; enclosure of 2 pages (No. 15); enclosure
of 2 pages (Aria , No. 9)
Violino Secondo No. 1: Title, 74 pages, three undesignated enclosures of 2 pages
each
Violino Secondo No. 2: Title, 74 pages, two undesignated enclosures of 2 pages
each
Viole: Title, 62 pages, two undesignated enclosures of two pages each
Violoncello – Basso No. 1: Title, 62 pages, two undesignated enclosures of 2 pages
each
Basso No. 2: Title, 60 pages, 2 untitled enclosures of 2 pages each
Flauto Primo: Title, 34 pages, enclosure of 2 pages (within an Aria )
Flauto Secondo : Title, 30 pages, enclosure of 2 pages (within an Aria ) and an
enclosure inside consisting of a title and 3 pages (No. 13)
Oboe primo : Title, 52 pages, 1 page enclosure (within an Aria )
Oboe Secondo : Title, 50 pages, 1 page enclosure (within an Aria )
Clarinetto Primo: Title, 3 pages (no enclosure)
This appears to be Kunigunde’s Aria (No. 8, Aria , Kunigunde, “Wer Weiber hüten
will”), which Weber originally thought of as No 9.
15
111
Clarinetto Secondo : Title, 3 pages, 1 page undesignated enclosure
Fagotti: Title, 46 page (no enclosure)
Corno Primo : Title, 50 pages, 2 enclosures (one is in E, No. 4)
Corno Secondo: Title, 50 pages, undesignated enclosures
Clarino primo: Title, 30 pages (no enclosure)
Clarino Secondo: Title, 30 pages (no enclosure)
Timpano : Title, 28 pages, enclosure of 1 page
Tamburo: 2 untitled parts, 3 pages each
The size of each orchestra part, along with the instrumentation indicated in the
score, provides an overall sense of the composer’s orchestral palette. Weber appears to
have taken considerable care to group violins, woodwinds, and brasses. The sound
colors of the forest are depicted by the horns, including the typical horn entrances in the
hunting choruses of No. 1, Introduction; No. 3, Marcia ; No. 6, Prinz Chor der Jäger; and
others). Additionally, the oboe has many prominent solos (No. 9, Quartetto, Mathilde,
Kunigunde, Hertor, and Wizlingo; No. 11, Aria , Mathilde; and No. 20, Fackel -Tanz; and
the Mathilde’s Aria in Finale No. 11, among others). The oboe is strongly associated
with the role of Silwana in No. 14, Aria , Printz. The oboe is also heard prominently
throughout the opera, in various duets, intermittently with the trumpets, clarinets, or
flutes, and doubling melodies in unison with the violins, as occurs in No. 2, Aria , Krips;
No. 5, Aria , Krips; and No. 18, Duetto , Krips, Kunigunde). The bassoon is used as a
traditional bass voice, and also as a melodic instrument for the Adagio theme of both the
overture and No. 13, Zwischen Musik . The trumpet’s emerging melodic function is clear
in No. 11, Finale. Similarly, the piccolo (indicated on the Flauto primo part) has an
important melodic theme in No. 13, Zwischen Musik .
Incipits of the numbers in Weber’s opera Das Waldmädchen, RF-Sprob, Sign. I, 1.
W.373 are shown in Figure 6.3. These are Gubkina’s transcriptions from the St.
112
Petersburg score.16 Unless otherwise indicated, all examples are scores for violins and
oboe.
Act 1
A. Overtura
B. No. 1, Introduction, Choro Jäger
Example 6.3
Gubkina’s Incipits to the St. Petersburg Score of
Weber’s Das Waldmädchen
16
Gubkina, “Notizen,” 46–49.
113
Example 6.3—continued
C. No. 2, Aria , Krips
D. No. 3, Marcia
E. No. 4, Duetto, Printz, Krips
114
Andante
F. No. 5, Aria , Krips
G. No. 6, Printz, Chor der Jäger
H. No. 7, Aria , Arbander
115
Andante
I. No. 8, Aria , Kunigunde
J. No. 9, Quartetto, Mathilde, Kunigunde, Hertor, Wirlingo
K. No. 10, Duetto, Wirlingo Krips
116
L. No. 11, Finale. Aria , Mathilde
Act 2
M. No. 12, Duetto, Hertor, Wizlingo
N. No. 13, Zwischen Musik
117
Andantino-sempre dolce
O. No. 14, Aria , Printz
P. No. 15, Aria , Krips
Q. No. 16, Recitativo con Aria , Mathilde
118
R. No. 17, Terzetto , Mathilde, Arbander, Krips
S. No. 18, Duetto, Krips, Kunigunde
T. No. 19, Marcia
119
U. No. 20, Der Fakel -Tanz
V. No. 21, Schlußchor.
Wranitzky’s Ballet and Weber’s Opera: Comparing Scores
The plot similarities between Steinsberg’s setting of Das Waldmädchen and
Wranitzky’s ballet Das Waldmädchen are clear. Both works share the same title and
depict a mute forest maiden who is discovered by a Prince during a hunting expedition.
Because Steinsberg was familiar with the ballet, knew its plot, and had even produced
Uhlich’s version of it prior to writing his libretto, it can be assumed that Steinsberg’s
libretto portrays the same story events and characters as Wranitzky’s ballet.
Consequently, Weber’s opera score should have at least a few musical numbers that
depict the same events and occur in the same order as their counterparts in Wranitzky’s
ballet score. If that is the case, such similarly ordered and dramatic musical elements
120
can be said to represent conventions of German musical theater that were common to
both pantomime ballet and German opera at that time.
The musical numbers in Wranitzky’s ballet score to Das Waldmädchen are listed in
Table 6.3.
Table 6.3
Organization of Musical Numbers in
Wranitzky’s Ballet Das Waldmädchen (1796)
NUMBER
KEY
TEMPO
METER
Sinfonia
DM
2/2–3/4–2/2
No. 1
No. 2
GM
DM
Vivace-PolonaisePrimo Tempo
Allegretto
MaestosoAllegro ma non troppo
Allegretto
Andante-Allegro
(no indication)
Allegro
Allegretto
Allegretto
Poco adagio-Allegro
Andantino
No. 3
No. 4
No. 5
No. 6
No. 7
No. 8
No. 9
No. 10
No. 11
No. 12
No. 13
No. 14
No. 15
No. 16
No. 17
No. 18
No. 19
B?M
FM
DM
B?M
E?M
GM
CM
AM
EM
AM
AM
DM
AM
CM
GM
CM
GM
No. 20
No. 21
FM
DM
Andantino
Allegro
Larghetto
Allegretto
Larghetto
Larghetto
Allegretto
Larghetto
2/4
3/4–
6/8
3/8
? –6/8
2/4
6/8
2/4
2/4
2/4–6/8
3/4
2/4
3/4
2/4
?
2/4
?
6/8
2/4
6/8–2/4
un poco Allegro
Maestoso
3/8
3/4
121
OTHER
Hunt-like
p /staccato
attacca
dotted rhythms
segue subito at
meter change,
then series of
fermatas in 2/4
meter
NUMBER
KEY
No. 22
FM
TEMPO
METER
Cosacca,
allegro non troppo
E?M–B?M– Andantino
cm
2/4
No. 24
No. 25
No. 26
E?M
DM
B?M
6/8
?
3/4
No. 27
No. 28
CM
g min.–
GM
Allegro
Pas de Deux, Andantino
Polonaise Andantino
Allegretto
Adagio non troppoPolonaise
No. 29
No. 30
No. 31
B?M
FM
CM
Polonaise
Mazur
Allegro vivace
3/4
3/8
2/4
No. 23
2/4
2/4
?–
3/4
OTHER
Tense, loud,
rhythmically
active, wide
melodic range
Original polonaise
Introduction
w/dotted rhythms;
new polonaise
melody; Original
polonaise
Contretanz
Most of the musical numbers in Wranitzky’s score serve as a simple
accompaniment to the dancers, whose actions, expressions, and gestures convey story
events to the audience. Contrast between numbers is created by changing the meter,
tempo, key, and instrumentation for each scene. Consequently, several keys are heard
in the course of the score. The ballet includes numbers in C major, as well as the sharp
keys of G Major, D major, A major, and E major (1–4 sharps), and the flat keys of F
major, Bb Major, and Eb major (1–3 flats). Minor keys are heard in No. 23 (c minor) and
No. 28 (g min or). Although not represented in the table, fermatas are frequently
inserted within or between musical numbers to signal to the audience that a change is
about to occur. These elements are all typical of any ballet score and are necessitated to
some extent by the requirements of a danced stage work.
Wranitzky occasionally employs the orchestra for exclusively dramatic purposes,
however, choosing meter, tempo, key, and instrumentation, as well as formal elements,
122
for their ability to convey a particular mood or setting, or to express some aspect of the
plot. Meter, tempo, key, instrumentation, and formal elements can also be used to
depict the feelings of a character or characters, or to convey information about the story
to the audience directly by providing specific sounds or events that otherwise could not
be represented on stage.
In Wranitzky’s score the first dramatic element of this type is the key of D major
in the opening Sinfonia. As an instrumental movement with no dancers or actors, the
Sinfonia is the first expressive utterance heard by the audience. The composer’s choice
of key, therefore, is important. The playbill from the premiere of Wranitzky’s ballet
establishes that the story takes place in a forest during a hunt, when a Polish prince and
his servant discover a wild maiden.
The concept of affective key characteristics espoused by Christian Friedrich
Daniel Schubart in 1806 explains how Wranitzky might have selected the best key for his
Sinfonia:
Every key is either coloured (sic) or uncoloured. Innocence and simplicity
are expressed by uncoloured keys. Tender and melancholy feelings [are
espressed] by flat keys; wild and strong passions by sharp keys.17
With only two sharps, the key of D major was regarded as a “less colored” key,
not entirely innocent and simple (as C major would represent), but only slightly more
complicated in character. Keys with a greater number of sharps or flats—the more
colored keys—were used to depict more intense, complex, or anxiety-laden emotions or
circumstances. The choice of a sharp key and not a flat key is also significant. The
“Jeder Ton ist entweder gefärbt oder nicht gefärbt. Unschuld und Einfalt
drückt man mit ungefärbten Tönen; Sanfte, melancholische Gefühle mit B-Tönen; wilde
und starke Leidenschaften mit Kreuztönen.” Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart,
“Charakteristik der Töne: Aus meiner Äesthetik der Tonkunst,” Ideen zu einer Ästhetik der
Tonkunst, ed. Ludwig Schubart (Vienna: Degen, 1806); reprint edited by P. A. Merbach
(Leipzig: Wolkenwander-Verlag, 1924), 261. Translation in Rita Steblin, A History of Key
Characteristics in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI
Research Press, 1983), 121. Hereafter, Steblin, A History of Key Characteristics.
17
123
association of “wild and strong passions” with sharp keys corresponds is suitable for the
opening music of a stage work about a wild child of nature.
The ternary form of Wranitzky’s Sinfonia frames the characteristic rhythms of a
Polish national dance in 3/4 meter. The middle Polonaise section is preceded by an
opening A section (70 measures) in 2/4 meter in a fast tempo that stops abruptly with a
fermata (and the instructions siegue Polonois’e). The rhythmic interruption of the fermata
signals to the audience that a change is about to take place, a standard device for ballets.
Typically, fermatas interrupt a scene to signal the entrance of a new character or
characters. Because there are no dancers on stage during the Sinfonia, however, the
dramatic function of this fermata is to direct the audience’s attention to the music that
will follow, calling attention to the slower, triple-meter polonaise melody. 18 The fanfarelike rhythms of the polonaise melody represent the Polish Prince.
Wranitzky draws upon this association several times in his score. The polonaise
melody returns in No. 26 and No. 29, toward the end of the opera, at which point
dancers on stage were prob ably dancing a polonaise. Wranitzkys reason for introducing
this melody in the Sinfonia would have been to help establish the nationality of one of
the main characters. At the conclusion of the polonaise section of the Sinfonia, which
comprises only 32 m easures (an 8 measure phrase that is repeated, followed by a sixteen
measure section), the A section returns in 2/4 meter and vivace, to round off the opening
number. Notably, the entire movement is in the key of D major.
The musical numbers in Weber’s opera score to Das Waldmädchen are listed in
Table 6.4.
The polonaise is a festive processional couple dance in triple meter with short
repeated sections. It originated as a Polish folk dance with a sung accompaniment, and
was subsequently adopted by the courts. A more stylized instrumental version became
popular in the eighteenth century, featuring a moderate tempo, triple meter, a lack of
upbeats, and the repetition of rhythmic figures, and was used as an accompaniment to
courtly dance. Don Michael Randel, ed., The New Harvard Dictionary of Music
(Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986), 644. Hereafter,
Randel.
18
124
Table 6.4
Organization of Musical Numbers in the
St. Petersburg Score to Weber’s Opera Das Waldmädchen (1800)
NUMBER
KEY
TEMPO
Act 1
Overtura
No. 1 Introduction
No. 2 Aria
No. 3 Marcia
No. 4 Duetto
No. 5 Aria
No. 6
No. 7 Aria
No. 8 Aria
No. 9 Quartetto
DM
FM
DM
CM
CM
FM
CM/B?
E?M
GM
B?M
Adagio
Allegro
Allegro maestoso
Moderato
Andante
Allegro-sempre piano
Allegro maestoso
Andante
Vivace
C
3/8
C
2/4
?
2/4
3/8
C
C
C
No. 10 Duetto
No. 11 Finale-Aria
CM
AM
Vivace
Amoroso
6/8
(Instrumental)
Choro Jäger
Krips
(Instrumental)
Printz, Krips
Krips
Prinz, Chor der Jäger
Arbander
Kunigunde
Mathilde, Kunigunde,
Hartor, Witzlingo
Witzlingo, Krips
Mathilde
cm
DM
Allegro
Andante
?
2/4
Hartor, Witzlingo
(Instrumental)
CM
EM
AM
Andantino
Moderato
3/4
2/4
C
Prinz
Krips
Mathilde
DM
Allegro vivace
?
CM
CM
FM
Allegretto
Larghetto
6/8
2/4
3/4
Mathilde,
Arbander,
Krips
Krips, Kunigunde
(Instrumental)
(Instrumental)
DM
Allegro
2/4
(Tutti)
Act 2
No. 12 Duetto
No. 13 Zwischen
Musik
No. 14 Aria
No. 15 Aria
No. 16 Recitative
con Aria
No. 17 Terzetto
No. 18 Duetto
No. 19 Marcia
No. 20 Der Fakel Tanz
No. 21 Schlußchor
METER
125
CHARACTER(S)
An opera overture, like the Sinfonia of a pantomime-ballet, establishes the mood,
setting, and characters of the story that is to follow. The first scene of Weber’s Das
Waldmädchen takes place in a remote forest setting, near the opening of a cave. Like
Wranitzky, Weber chose the key of D major for his opening music. (Weber would
continue to employ this association of D major with forest and hunt scenes for his
operas, Silvana and Der Freischütz 19 ) His overture begins with a D major chord repeated
three times.
Wranitzky’s score moves to G major for No. 1, Allegretto , which is 19 measures
long and too brief to accompany a dance. Rather, this short number seems better suited
to a more practical function, to accompany a lighting change or perhaps the raising of a
curtain. The use of this key shifts the tonality of the score away from D major, but to a
closely related key. This tonal contrast helps emphasize the return to D major for No. 2,
Maestoso-Allegro ma non troppo . Along with the return to D major, the meter shifts from
2/4 to 3/4 for the opening Maestoso section. This is probably the first danced number in
the ballet.
The second section of Wranitzky’s No. 2 is in 6/8 meter, Allegro ma non troppo .
Here the orchestral score brings the sound of a hunt to the audience’s ears, informing
them that the forest setting on the stage is populated by a band of hunters. In the most
practical sense, horn calls (Jagdmusik ) were a means of communicating during a hunt.
Triadic melodies in 6/8 meter were commonly used to convey the spirit of the hunt.20
In Weber’s opera score No. 1, Introduction, Choro Jäger, corresponds with the
hunt-like music from Wranitzky’s ballet, No. 2, Maestoso-Allegro ma non troppo. Weber’s
Kirk Ditzler, “The motif of the forest in Weber's Silvana and Der Freischuetz ,”
The Opera Journal 31 (1998), 39–40.
19
Eighteenth-century examples of similar hunt-like music include the hunting
scene in George Frederic Handel’s opera Giulio Cesare (1725), Carl Stamitz’s Symphony
in D (“La chasse,” 1772), and J. S. Bach’s Cantata, “Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre
Jagd!” (Hunting Cantata), BWV 208. A scene from Haydn’s oratorio Die Jahreszeiten
(1801) is a nearly contemporary example of this expressive practice. Horace Fitzpatrick
and Peter Downey, “Jagdmusik,” Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 20 March
2005), http://www.grovemusic.com .
20
126
hunting chorus is in the key of F major, not D major (like Wranitzky’s hunt music), but
Weber returns to the key of D major for the first solo number, No. 2, Aria , Krips (“Ein
Mensch er viel Kuerage hat ist auch gewiß nicht dumm.”)
Like the previously mentioned sections in D major, the music for No. 23,
Andantino , stands apart from the rest of the music in Wranitzky’s score. Here, it is not
the key or the meter, or the invocation of a national dance, but the violent nature of the
music that is the obviously dramatic element. The music for this number is loud and
rhythmically active, with forte dotted sixteenth-note scale-like passages in the first violin
that race up and down the melodic range of the instrument. The harmony shifts
restlessly after 31 measures in E? major to B? major. It then modulates to the key of c
minor for the rest of the number. This is one the longest numbers in the ballet (183
measures). The music clearly expresses something threatening, ominous, or violent,
although it is not possible to identify its precise significance without knowing more
about the ballet’s story.
The opening number to the second act of Weber’s opera, No. 12., Duetto , Hartor,
Witzlingo, “Schrecklich tobt der Stürme sausen, ängstlich ist des Donners Brausen”
(“The roaring gale whistles terribly, the thunder’s roar is frightening“) seems analogous
to No. 23 of Wranitzky’s ballet. Both numbers occur toward the middle of each stage
work. Wranitzky’s storm -like music precedes a Pas de Deux between the Polish Prince
and the forest maiden.
Viennese pantomime-ballets typically ended with a tutti finale, in which the
entire cast of dancers was assembled together on the stage. Plot events leading up to
this finale had to be ordered in such a way that each of the characters returned to the
stage gradually, through several numbers preceding the finale. To begin this progression
it was necessary for most of the dancers to exit the stage at an earlier point. This could
be accomplished by a scene change, or by a simple exit of the corps, leaving only one or
two dancers in front of the audience. Usually, the best dancers—the soloists—would
then be featured in a succession of solo or duo numbers that showcased their technique.
Subsequent numbers, in quick succession, would then involve more and more dancers,
127
until finally, everyone was on stage. The music that typically accompanied the final
dance scene in a pantomime ballet of this period was a Contretanz . Wranitzky’s score
ends in this fashion, with No. 31, Allegro vivace , Contretanz . This number is also the final
component of an interesting series of dances that begins with No. 25, a Pas de Deux in D
major.
Only two dancers would have occupied the stage for No. 25 (presumably, the
Prince and the forest maiden). The subsequent numbers leading to the final Contretanz ,
in order, include No. 26, the recapitulation of the original polonaise melody. A
polonaise is a procession-like dance for couples, which would have allowed new pairs of
dancers to join the original couple on stage. Next follows a simple Allegretto (C major,
2/4 meter) which lasts 83 measures, leading up to an Adagio (No. 28) in g minor with
dotted rhythms. The action on stage cannot be determined at this point. No. 28 shifts
abruptly into G major, however, when it introduces a new polonaise melody—probably
danced by even more couples. Two more Polish dances follow, No. 29, which is the
original Polonaise melody once again, and No. 30, a Mazur .21 The Mazur, or mazurka, is
a particularly interesting choice, for this Polish national dance is usually performed by
four, eight, or twelve couples. Thus, the progression of music from No. 25 to No. 29,
would have required more and more characters to return to the stage in preparation for
the final Contretanz . In addition, the alternation of meters, keys, and tempi (from slow to
fast) would have generated a sense of anticipation and forward momentum that
culminated in the closing dance scene. No. 25, the Pas de Deux (again in D major) is
Andantino and in duple meter (alla breve ). This scene probably featured the two principal
male and female characters, i.e., the Prince and the forest maiden. The number is 101
measure long, with short repeated sections between measures 2–11 and 23–30 ending
pianissimo. This is followed by the original polonaise melody (No. 26) in 3/4 meter (B?
major at a similarly moderate tempo that lasts more than 100 measures. No. 27,
Mazur is the Polish word for Mazurka , a Polish folk dance in triple time from
the province of Mazovia, near Warsaw. These dances were usually danced by four,
eight, or twelve couples, with movements that were highly improvisational. Randel,
477.
21
128
Allegretto, is in 2/4 meter and C major—the uncolored key of innocence and simplicity.
This number is 83 measures long. Nos. 28, 29, 30, and 31 form a sequence of briefer
dance numbers. No. 28 begins with a slow (Adagio non troppo ) 9-measure introduction in
g minor, which features dotted rhythms alla breve , but shifts abruptly to a new polonaise
melody (3/4 meter in G m ajor—37 measures). Next comes the original polonaise melody
(No. 29, 3/4 meter in B? major—21 measures), and that number segues directly to No. 30,
Mazur (in F major, 3/8 meter—21 measures). The final Contretanz (No. 31), in C m ajor, is
in 2/4 meter and comprises 63 measures to end the ballet.
A similar sequence can be observed in Weber’s score. A stormy aria (No. 12)
begins Act 2. The Prince’s aria, No. 14 (“Sprich o Mädchen, liebst du mich?”), during
which Silwana gestures in silent response to the Prince’s declarations of love, is
analogous to the Pas de Deux in Wranitzky’s ballet. Next are two more solo arias (No. 15,
Aria Krips, and No. 16, Recitative con Aria , Mathilde) and a trio (No. 17, Terzetto,
Mathilde, Arbander, Krips), all of which culminate with the revelation of Silwana’s
identity. This series of solo and ensemble numbers featuring the main characters of the
opera is similar to the sequence of dance numbers (Nos. 26 through 29) in Wranitzky’s
ballet that probably featured each of the solo dancers in some way. Krips’s duet with
Kunigunde (No. 18) is followed by a comic march (No. 20), which leads directly into the
final sequence of ensemble numbers and closing chorus.
Gubkina’s incipits provide only a small fraction of Weber’s score, making it
impossible to determine if any polonaise or mazurka melodies are included among the
musical numbers of Weber’s opera. Nevertheless, the Prince’s Polish nobility becomes
apparent through the final Fackeltanz , is a torch dance procession associated with
important weddings or other state occasions. Weber’s opera premiered in Saxony,
during the unsettling years of the Napoleonic wars. In the previous century the Elector
of Saxony had also been the King of Poland. After 1797, however, because Saxony’s
army fought on the side of Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig and lost, substantial
territories of Saxony were ceded to Prussia. The presentation of a traditional Fakeltanz
would have been an obvious symbol of Polish nationalism to Weber’s audiences at
129
Freiberg and Chemnitz. Additionally, the number functions much the same way as
Wranitzky’s polonaise/Mazur sequence, bringing Weber’s entire cast of singers back
onto the stage for the Schlußchor that ends the opera.
Both scores appear to follow the same plot and employ many of the same
musical convention, establishing a close link between pantomime-ballet and early
German Romantic opera. Both stage works begin in the slightly colored key of D major,
a key that is subsequently linked to forest scenes and the hunt. Each has a hunting scene
early on, almost immediately after the opening music. Both works also employ
traditional folk dances or melodies to reflect the national identity of the Prince. About
half-way through each score, each work features instrumental music in a minor key—
apparently storm music, typical in stage works at the time. The scores each continue
with a scene between the Prince and the forest maiden, followed by a series of solo or
ensemble numbers that feature each of the main characters of the opera. Finally, each
concludes with a final procession that brings the entire cast back to the stage.
Weber might have had access to Wranitzky’s ballet score, but one cannot be sure
that he did. Nevertheless, it is clear that he was familiar with the musical conventions
used by Wranitzky for the ballet. Weber continued to develop his own applications of
similar expressive musical gestures throughout his career as an opera composer. His
second setting of the Waldmädchen story as Silvana , for example, includes many of these
same elements. In that score the key of D major is associated with hunt music and forest
scenes, vivid storm music is set in a minor key, and folk dances lead to a final chorus.
Weber even reused his entire overture from Das Waldmädchen as the overture to Silvana ,
illustrating the seminal importance of this early stage work on his developing concept of
German opera.
130
CHAPTER 7
THE CHEMNITZ CAST AND
THE PERFORMANCE AT PRAGUE
The Chemnitz Cast
The list of cities visited by members of Steinsberg’s company correlates closely to
the performance history of both Wranitzky’s ballet and Weber’s early opera.
Steinsberg’s company had multiple residencies between early 1799 and 24 August 1800,
when they arrived at Freiberg. They were at Karlsbad from May to August 1799, which
was their regular summer season at that city. As already noted, Weber and his father
first met Steinsberg at Karlsbad that summer. On 12 September the company began a
new residency at Augsburg, and they remained there until the end of the year.1 Uhlich’s
version of Wranitzky’s ballet was performed during that residency at Augsburg. All
company members’ names are preserved in A. L. Dahlstedt’s account of that residency.
Although only last names are provided, this source establishes that most of the members
of the cast of Das Waldmädchen at Chemnitz in 1800 had been in residence with
Steinsberg at Augsburg in 1799. In addition to Steinsberg, the company was comprised
of the following male performers: Braunmüller, Ernst, Haag, Hartmann, Hübner,
Jungheim, Kees, Löser (who would sing the role of Ritter Wensky in Weber’s Das
Waldmädchen), Muck, Müller, Anton Schicketanz, Seebuch, Seidl (he would later play the
part of Krips at Chemnitz), Spania, Truatwett, Uhlich, Wagner, Wieser, and Zilhart. The
female performers are listed as: Braunmüller, Dywe, Ernst, Haag, Löser (who would
sing the role of Kunigunde in Weber’s Das Waldmädchen), Muck, Müller, Seidl, Spania
1
Dahlstedt, Augsburg , previously cited.
131
(who would dance the role of Silwana), Uhlich, and Wieser. An erratum on the last page
mentions that one company member’s name was omitted from the list of personnel:
Herr von Harrer (who would play the role of Rechter).2
There is little extant information about these individuals. However, the names of
at least a few appear in other sources. As with Steinsberg, the inconsistent spelling of
names and the use of stage names tends to frustrate historical inquiry. Madame Loeser
(Kunigunde), as her name appears in the Chemnitz playbill, was probably also known
as Therese Leiser (née Perekop, 1771–1846).3 The spelling “Leiser” was used in Goethe’s
Theater-Kalendar of 1794, where she is listed as a member of the German company of the
Nationaltheater (which was the Nostitz Theater at Prague).4 The name is spelled
“Löser” in a letter from Franz Anton to Joseph Kirms at Weimar, written 10 December
1800 (in reference to Herr Löser, the spouse of this actress).5 During the winter season
1793–94, while the Seconda company was away from Prague, this troupe also performed
both German and Czech works at Prague’s Thunovské divadlo (Thun’s theater), also
known as the Kleinseitner Theater), which was sponsored by Count Thun at the Raymann
house in Malá Strana (in English, the Lesser Town district, on the left bank of the Vltava
River, and south of Prague’s Castle District).6 Teuber also notes that Therese Leiser was
Another notable name appearing in this account is “Herr Sennefelder [sic],”
who on 9 December made a guest appearance in the role of the father in Wenzel
Müller’s Das neue Sonntagskind . Dahlstedt, Augsburg, 21. Alois Senefelder was the
former actor, playwright, and lithographer from Munich to whom Weber was
apprenticed from 1798 to 1800. It is not known if Alois Senefelder was at Augsburg for
this production, or if the guest actor was merely someone with the same last name.
2
3
Teuber 2: 312, f. n.
4
Ibid. She was with the company during the winter season of 1793–94.
5
Pasqué, Goethe’s Theaterleitung in Weimar, 2: 28.
Teuber 2: 312. From 1803, the Thunovské divadlo (also Kleinseitner Theater) was
known as the Malostranské divadlo . From 1803 to 1811 it was the only troupe in Prague
that continued to perform Czech-language stage works. Their facility at that time was
the refectorium of former Dominican cloister in the Church of St. Maria Magdalena.
6
132
a member of the German company of the Nostitz Theater from as early as 1790. He
references her maiden name instead of her married name on one of his lists, stating that
“Madamoiselle Perekop” was an actress capable of performing in spoken plays as the
principal love interest, good at naïve roles and Verkleiderollen (disguised roles), who also
sings. 7 Therese was likely Czech, capable of working in both German or Czech
productions. Later in his history, Teuber singles her out as the “pearl of the company,”
stating that she played principal love interest roles in spoken plays, comedies and
tragedies, and also sang principal roles in operas. 8
She appears to have been quite talented and in demand in the mid-1790s, for on
18 February 1795 she was employed at Vienna’s Burgtheater, although there is no
indication of that she remained at that venue for any length of time.9 Her affiliation with
theater companies in Prague and Vienna makes it likely that she worked with
Steinsberg’s troupe at Augsburg from September to December of 1799, and later at
Freiberg and Chemnitz from August to December 1800. Notably, Therese Leiser was
married to Franz W. Leiser (b. 1759), who specialized in military roles. He could have
been the Herr Loeser who played the role of Ritter Wensky in Das Waldmädchen, and the
Löser that Franz Anton mentioned in his letter to Kirms.
Herr Krüger, the actor who portrayed Conrad Witzlingo, was probably Karl
Friedrich Krüger (1765–1814), hereafter Karl Krüger. Many aspects of his biography are
unclear, but there is convincing evidence that he had worked at both Weimar and
Alena Jacobcová and Jitka Ludvová, “Deutschsprachiges Theater in Prag: Spielstätten
und Quellen, “ in Deutschsprachiges Theater in Prag, Alena Jacobcová, Jitka Ludvová, and
Václav Maidl, ed. (Divadelní Ustav: Prague, 2001), 499. Hereafter, Jacobcová and
Ludvová, “Prague Theater Companies.”
7
Teuber, 2: 255.
8
Teuber, 2: 255.
9
Teuber, 2: 312.
133
Prague before joining Steinsberg’s company.10 Karl Krüger was born in Berlin, where he
made his stage debut in 1785.11 He studied mime with J. J. Engel and stage direction
with K. T. Döbbelin before joining theater companies in Hanover (1788–89), Amsterdam
(1789–91), and Weimar (beginning on 12 May 1791), where he remained until 1795.12
Franz Anton probably knew Karl Krüger at Weimar in 1794, when Genovefa von
Weber had also been employed at the Weimar Hoftheater. Daughter Jeannette von
Weber, and her husband, actor Vincenz Weyrauch, had also been employed there since
the early 1790s, so it is likely that they also knew Karl Krüger. Franz Anton specifically
mentioned that Herr Krüger had performed in Carl Maria’s new opera when he wrote to
Joseph Kirms (Intendant at the Weimar Hoftheater) on 10 December 1800.13 He
explained that Krüger had experienced success at Prague. He also specified that Krüger
was not the “Directeur Krüger” who earlier in 1800 had brought an inferior troupe to
Freiberg and Teplitz. 14 This affiliation with Weimar’s theater community in the 1790s
Ludwig Eisenberg, “Karl Friedrich Krüger,” in Grosses Biographisches Lexikon
der Deutschen Bühne im XIX. Jahrhundert (Leipzig: Paul List, 1903), 554–55. Hereafter,
Eisenberg. This seems the most likely identification. However, Krüger is a common
surname that appears in several sources, often without a first name.
10
11
Eisenberg, 554.
12
13
According to Max Maria von Weber, someone named Krüger had been the
director of a troupe in residence at Freiberg’s Buttermarkt Theater from 17 January to 18
May 1800. Apparently the director had programmed overly ambitious works, such as
Mozart’s Don Giovanni (as Don Juan) and Die Zauberflöte , Winter’s Des unterbrochenen
Opferfest , and also Hamlet, all of which were beyond the scope of his company’s
dramatic, musical, and technical capacity. Rather than heroic or inspiring, the
performances were laughable productions, causing city officials to terminate the
contract with Krüger’s company. MMW, 54. Mention must also be made that the name
Krüger (with no first name) appears on Teuber’s roster of the German company that
performed in Prague at both the Nostitz Theater and Kleinseitner Theater (or Thunovské
divadlo ) during the winter season of 1793–94. Teuber, 2: 312. That Krüger is described as
14
134
lends support to the conclusion that Karl Friedrich Krüger sang the role of Witzlingo in
Weber’s Das Waldmädchen at Chemnitz in 1800.
Eisenberg states that Karl Krüger went to Amsterdam to direct a theater
company in 1795, but did he not remain in Holland for long. Instead he took an
engagement at Prague, where in 1798 was hired to direct a touring company. 15 Karl
Krüger’s whereabouts between 1798 and 1800 are unclear. He may have been touring
with Stentzsch’s troupe, or perhaps was working with other colleagues in the area,
including Steinsberg. 16 The only thing certain, thanks to Franz Anton’s letter, is that he
was not the inept director of the troupe that was in Freiberg during the spring of 1800.17
an actor who played love interest (Liebhaber ) and character roles in spoken plays, and
also sang.
“ . . . . nach Amsterdam lenkte ihm 1795 auf kurze Zeit abermals nach Holland,
er blieb jedoch nicht lange, nahm Engagement in Prag, übernahm 1798 die Leitung einer
reisenden Schauspielergesellschaft. . . .” Eisenberg, 554; Teuber, 2: 319. Teuber identifies
someone named Krüger (again, no first name) as the stage director of Stentzsch’s
combined touring company (with members from both Prague and Karlsbad), but the
year was 1797. Teuber, 2: 319. See Table 3.3. It will be remembered that Steinsberg
officially became the director of the vaterländische Gesellschaft at the Hibernium in 1797–
98, when Stentzsch began negotiating the sale of the Nostitz Theater to the Royal
Bohemian Estates in 1797. A confusing situation developed because Stentzsch did not
fully relinquish his post to Steinsberg, and Steinsberg maintained his post as the director
of the German company at the Nostitz Theater. Stentzsch managed a traveling troupe of
members from both the Hibernium and the Karlsbad theaters during the 1797–98
season, and hired a stage director named Krüger, probably Karl Friedrich Krüger, to
work with that company. In 1798, after Steinsberg’s contract at the Nostitz Theater
ended and was not renewed, Steinsberg took members of the vaterländische Gesellschaft to
Karlsbad, where they were in residence from May to August 1798. Steinsberg’s stage
director during that residency was Karl Währ. Refer to Table 3.4. Teuber, 2: 321, f. n.
15
Eisenberg states that in 1800 Karl Krüger traveled to Leipzig to direct a theater
there, but financial difficulties forced him to leave in 1801. He went to Brünn next,
where after only six months he was invited to join the German company at Vienna’s
Burgtheater. In 1802 he married Karoline Spengler (née Giranek, b. 1753), an actress
from Prague who was employed at the Burgtheater from 1802 to 1822. She was the
widow of Franz Spengler, the former director of Prague’s Thunovské divadlo from 1793 to
1794, and the German company at the Nostitz Theater from 1793 to 1796. Eischenburg,
554; Jacobcová and Ludvová, “Prague’s Theater Companies,” 496.
16
135
Dahlstedt’s chronicle of the residency at Augsburg in 1799 provides additional
information about Steinsberg’s other company members who were not directly involved
with Weber’s new opera in 1800. The details of their careers help establish a link
between Steinsberg’s libretto and Wranitzky’s ballet. Dancers Jungheim and Uhlich,
who were in Steinsberg’s company at Augsburg, had worked at Prague’s Nostitz
Theater in 1796. Their colleagues there included Madame Spania, who would
eventually dance the role of Silwana in Weber’s new opera, and a fourth dancer named
Heiß. Madame Spania, Heiß, Jungheim, and Uhlich had all been traveling with
Steinsberg’s troupe since May 1798. Jungheim, Uhlich, and Heiß were also
choreographers, and it is in this capacity that Uhlich played a particularly significant
role at Augsburg, and possibly at the venues they visited prior to that residency.
Specifically, Dahlstedt’s chronicle notes that Steinsberg’s company performed Uhlich’s
new version of the ballet Das Waldmädchen in that city on 16 September 1799.18
Additional performances took place on 24 September, and 2, 5, 16, and 24 December,
1799. This makes it clear that although Steinsberg was in Karlsbad when Brunetti’s
version of Das Waldmädchen premiered at Prague on 28 May 1798, he was familiar with
the ballet, knew its plot, and had produced at least one version of the ballet prior to
writing his libretto to Das Waldmädchen.
For artistic reasons alone Steinsberg could have borrowed the plot from the ballet
Das Waldmädchen as the basis for his new opera libretto. He might also have needed to
address a more practical concern, especially if his productions of the ballet had been
popular with audiences. If the ballet required a large cast of dancers, for example,
Herr Aßmann, who sang the role of Fürst Hartor, is also mentioned in Franz
Anton’s letter to Kirms on 10 December 1800. Pasqué, Goethe’s Theaterleitung in Weimar,
2: 28. His former affiliation with Prague’s theater community, if any, is unknown.
Similarly, I was unable to find any information about Herr Gromann, who sang the role
of Fürst Arbander.
17
18
Dahlstedt, 12, 20–22.
136
Steinsberg would have needed a sizeable ballet corps. When he had left Prague with the
vaterändische Gesellschaft in 1799, the entire corps of dancers from the German company
of the Estates Theater had gone with him . However, Steinsberg’s dancers had gradually
begun returning to the Estates Theater in 1799.19 The movements of Steinsberg’s
company members can be tracked by comparing the personnel listed in Dahlstedt’s
chronicle with personnel rosters from Prague in 1800. Heiß had already returned to the
Estates Theater before Steinsberg’s residency at Augsburg in 1799. Uhlich returned to
Prague shortly afterward, for he is listed as a “Grotesk-dancer” on the roster of the
Estates Theater in 1800.20 Having lost at least two principal male dancers by 1800,
Steinsberg had to reconsider his company’s repertoire, relying less on ballet, perhaps,
and more on spoken plays and opera. By using the plot of Das Waldmädchen as the basis
for a new opera libretto, he could continue to produce a stage work depicting the
popular and mysterious forest maiden. But to do so would require a score. Six months
after the Augsburg residency ended, Steinsberg promised Freiberg’s city officials that his
newest opera libretto would be presented in their city for the first time. Perhaps to
ensure that audiences would be drawn to the performance, he kept the original title of
the ballet and named the new opera Das Waldmädchen.
A Performance at Prague in Czech
Weber’s early opera can now be studied within this fuller historical context. It
was a sequel, a stage work that had been inspired by the popularity of Wranitzky’s
original Viennese ballet. As in the ballet, its title character is a strange young woman
who cannot speak, whose identity is shrouded in mystery, and whose bizarre actions
both confound and enchant the other characters. This character and plot apparently
19
Teuber, 2: 351.
20
Ibid. Heiß had been with Steinsberg’s troupe at Karlsbad in 1798. Teuber, 2:
340.
137
intrigued Weber sufficiently to become the subject of another operatic version (Silvana )
eight years later. Given the public’s continuing interest in the topic of feral childen, it is
not possible to overstate the lengthy reception of Wranitzky’s original ballet.21 Naturally,
Weber, like Steinsberg, would have hoped to capitalize on the popularity of this topic
when, using Steinsberg’s libretto, he collaborated with poet F. K. Hiemer to produce
another version of the Waldmädchen story.
The fact that there were several versions of the ballet Das Waldmädchen before
Steinsberg incorporated its plot into an opera libretto would not have been unusual at
the time, for in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries librettists and theater
directors commonly revised popular stage works to suit the requirements of a particular
stage and to appeal to the taste of the public. 22 Weber’s decision to compose a second
opera (Silvana ) based on the characters, events, and settings of Das Waldmädchen, even
reusing some of the music for his earlier version, merely reflects that practice.
Occasionally titles were also changed in subsequent productions, but not always. The
title of the opera when it premiered at Freiberg was Das Waldmädchen, but the title was
Das stumme Waldmädchen for the second performance at Chemnitz. Both the title and
substantial portions of the score were modified for Wenzel Müller’s three-act version of
Weber’s opera, Das Mädchen in Spessarterwald , at the Leopoldstadt Theater in 1804–5.
And the extensive revisions to the St. Petersburg score, too, can be attributed to the
practice of modifying a popular work to suit local needs.
Given these methods, which were used by Czech troupes as well as German
companies, there is no reason to doubt that Das Waldmädchen was translated into Czech
for performances at Prague, as Weber claimed. But did such a performance actually take
place? If so, in what theater? It could not have been directed by Steinsberg, for in
The Allgemeine deutsche Theaterzeitung records that Stentzsch’s touring group
was in Mannheim in January and February 1799, and that a ballet called Das
Waldmädchen was among the repertoire they performed. Das Waldmädchen was presented
on 10 and 29 January.
21
22
138
November 1802 he went to St. Petersburg and became the stage director at that city’s
German theater company.23 He remained in Russia for the rest of his life.24 Other
members of his company at Freiberg and Chemnitz probably did return home, however.
Between 1803 and 1806 there was a renaissance of Czech theater productions in
Prague.25 This was possible because the original privilege that had been awarded to the
vaterländische Gesellschaft in 1786 was still owned by Antonín Zappe (c. 1748-23
November 1824), a founding member of the patriotic troupe. During Steinsberg’s
absence Zappe had continued to work with the Kleinseitner Theater (Malostranské divadlo ),
the company that had employed Therese Leiser, and possibly her husband and Karl
Krüger also, during the 1793-94 season.26 With the authority of Zappe’s concession, the
director of the Malostranské divadlo , named Zohrer, was able to lease a former Dominican
cloister at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in the Mala Straná district. That facility
was converted into a small theater. The troupe readied itself to present a series of
Czech-language works from fall 1803 to Easter 1804.27 Only one month into their new
season, however, Steinsberg’s former colleague at the Nostitz Theater, impresario
Domenico Guardisoni, began negotiating with the Malostranské divadlo about the
possibility of presenting Czech stage works at the Estates Theater instead.28 Guardasoni
23
24
Arthur Prudden Coleman, Kotzebue and the Czech Stage (Schenectady: Electric
City Press, 1936), 15.
25
Teuber, 2: 255, 369. Adolf Scherl, “Zappe, Antonín,” in Národní Divadlo a jeho
predchudci: Slovník um elcu divadel Vlastenského, Stavovského, Prozatímního, a Národního ,
Vladimír Procházka, ed. (Prague: Ceskoslovenská Akademie Ved, 1988), 589. As stated
previously, Joseph II had awarded this concession to Zappe and his Czech-born
colleagues F. Höpfler, F. X. Sewe (or Seve), and V. Anton, in 1786.
26
27
Teuber, 2: 369.
28
Teuber, 2: 369–70.
139
knew the capabilities of the Czech-born actors, singers, and dancers, many of whom had
worked with his successful German company in the 1790s.29 He indicated to Prague’s
Theater Commission that Czech-language productions could provide a new source of
revenue for the somewhat beleaguered Estates Theater. His efforts were successful.
On 23 December 1803 the Theater Commission purchased Zappe’s privilege in
exchange for the promise of pension rights and an agreement to employ members of the
Malostranské divadlo and the Estates Theater on a regular basis. 30 A royal decree was
issued on 5 March 1805, proclaiming that the Malostranské divadlo would be the new
Volkstheater of the Estates Theater. Once again the public could enjoy Czech stage works
at the Estates Theater on Sunday afternoons and holidays.
An extant register of receipts from the Estates Theater is preserved in the newly
reordered Central State Archives at Prague.31 This document was the Kassabuch, or
cashier’s accounting records, of the Estates Theater from 1804 to 1806, including the titles
and amounts earned at each performance of the Malostranské divadlo at that venue. Of
particular interest are two performances of the Singspiel Nemá dívka (Stummes Mädchen
or Mute Maiden) that took place on Sunday, 9 March 1806, and Sunday, 13 April 1806.32
There is little reason to doubt that this was the Czech version of Das Waldmädchen that
Weber wrote about in his autobiographical sketch of 1818.
Czech theater scholars consistently agree that Domenico Guardasoni
supported efforts to continue presenting Czech-language works in the early nineteenth
century and that he negotiated with Prague’s Theater Commission on behalf of the
Czech-born performers.
29
The commission also agreed to give Zappe a pension in exchange for his own
lost income. Teuber, 2: 370, f. n.
30
“Auszug aus dem . . . Kassabuch über Empfang und Ausgaben bei den . . .
böhmischen Spektakeln im Altstädt. Nationaltheater pro Ao 804, 805, 806,” Fond RZ
1196.5 Rukopis, Státním archive v Praze. For a transcription of this source, see Miroslav
Laiske, Pražská dramaturgie: Ceská divadelní predstavení v Praze do otevrení Prozatímního
divadla DÍL [1] 1762 /?/ - 1843 (Prague: Ústav pro Ceskou a Svetavou Literaturu Csav,
1974), 86-87.
31
32
Adolf Scherl directed me to this source.
140
SUMMARY
Little was known about Weber’s early opera Das Waldmädchen (1800) when this
study began, except that it was an unusual opera with a mute title character, written
when Weber was only thirteen years old. Most of the score to Das Waldmädchen, like the
score to Weber’s first juvenile opera Die Macht der Liebe und des Weins (1798–99), was
believed to have disappeared in the early nineteenth century, possibly by the composer’s
own hand. Only two score fragments of the music to Das Waldmädchen, Weber’s first
publicly-performed stage work, were known to have survived. There was no indication
why the thirteen-year-old boy had composed the score, nor was there reliable
information in English sources about Weber’s librettist Steinsberg. Little to nothing was
known of the caliber of the cast that first performed the opera, including any of their
former accomplishments or any subsequent activities. Weber scholars generally referred
to Das Waldmädchen rather simply as an immature work that inspired Silva na (J. 87),
Weber’s second version of the Waldmädchen story.
By all accounts Weber’s music to Das Waldmädchen was unremarkable. A review
written in January 1801 concluded that the score was “no more than a blossom that
promises fairer and riper fruit.”1 Nevertheless, Weber’s opera was produced at least
nine times by theater director Wenzel Müller at Vienna’s Leopoldstadt Theater in 1804–
05. Weber was not in Vienna at the time, nor is there any record of correspondence
between Weber and Müller prior to the Viennese production, so Müller’s interest in his
opera cannot be attributed the composer’s efforts to promote it. Müller must have been
drawn to the work for some other reason. This investigation of the performance history
of this work was further complicated by a remark in Weber’s autobiographical sketch of
Freyberger gemeinnützige Nachrichten für das chursächsische Erzgebirge , No. 2
(January 1801), 11; and Lorenz, “Waldmädchen,” VII.
1
141
1818, claiming that Das Waldmädchen was also performed at St. Petersburg and at
Prague, in Czech. Those claims were long regarded with reasonable skepticism, because
there was no evidence connecting Das Waldmädchen to either St. Petersburg or Prague.
Moreover, the autobiographical sketch itself was regarded as an unreliable and
incomplete source.
Much of that skepticism disappeared in 2000, however, when Russian
musicologist Natalia Gubkina discovered a complete score and set of orchestra parts to
Das Waldmädchen at St. Petersburg, confirming Weber’s claim of a performance at that
city. Because those documents have not yet been made accessible to other scholars, and
also because a critical edition of the score to Das Waldmädchen is forthcoming, this study
has focused instead on other unexplored aspects of Weber’s early opera, including
Weber’s collaboration with Steinsberg and his claim that Das Waldmädchen was
perform ed at Prague in Czech.
The findings indicate that any perceived unreliability of Weber’s
autobiographical sketch should be reconsidered. Through the careful study of theater
calendars and archival records at Prague and Vienna, along with several nineteenthcentury periodicals, lexica, and historical chronicles, Steinsberg’s professional stature as
a theater director has finally been established, along with his Czech nationality, and his
considerable experience as a librettist and playwright. The members of the original cast
of Das Waldmädchen have also been more precisely identified. Like Steinsberg, they also
had strong connections to the theatrical communities of Prague and Vienna, and may
have promoted the opera in those cities. Information in previous chapters demonstrates
that the performance history of this early opera was directly related to the movements of
Steinsberg and the members of his theater company.
The peculiar muteness of the opera’s title character was a characteristic
stemming from the pantomime-ballet on which Steinsberg’s libretto was based.
Steinsberg was probably inspired to write his libretto by the success of Wranitzky’s
popular Viennese ballet Das Waldmädchen, a work with which he was familiar. Using
incipits from Gubkina’s description of the St. Petersburg score to Weber’s Das
142
Waldmädchen, along with a Violin 1 part to Wranitzky’s ballet score, the numbers in
Weber’s opera could be compared to the numbers in the ballet. A few significant
dramatic similarities were found. After establishing that Weber’s musical background
prior to 1800 was limited by a lack of continuous formal training, but supported by his
knowledge of popular German theater, this study reasons that Weber had to rely
primarily on his understanding of well-known conventions of the German popular
stage, some guidance from Steinsberg, and perhaps even Wranitzky’s well-known ballet
music, when he hurriedly composed his score to Das Waldmädchen. Ongoing public
interest in mute characters, coupled with the availability of Weber’s score—probably
through former members of Steinsberg’s troupe, may have resulted in Müller’s
production of Weber’s Das Waldmädchen in 1804, as well as the performance at Prague in
Czech that Weber mentioned in his autobiographical sketch. These possibilities should
be considered further in the future.
The link between Steinsberg and Prague has been firmly established, in large
part by consulting the extensive bibliographic and archival work of Czech scholar Adolf
Scherl. When Steinsberg arrived at Freiberg in 1800, he was not merely a local theater
director, as he is described in most twentieth-century German and English sources.
Rather, he was an influential member of Prague’s vibrant theatrical community. For
decades he had earned his living as a popular playwright, an expert in German theater
and stage direction, a capable company manager, and a talented com edian, actor, and
singer. (A list of his stage works and publications is found in Table 3.1.) Steinsberg was
born in Bohemia. From 1796 to 1798 he had been the director of the German company at
Prague’s important Nostitz Theater. This was the same post that Wenzel Müller later
occupied in 1807–13 and that Weber held from 1813 to 1816. From 1797 to 1798
Steinsberg had also been the director of an important Czech theater company, the
vaterländische Gesellschaft. For many years members of that company had worked at the
city’s two most important theaters. One of these was the Hibernium Theater, where
they had been established as the vaterländisches Theater since 1789. At that venue they
usually produced Czech-language stage works for Czech-born audiences in a city that
143
had been subjugated by Hapsburg rule since 1526. This was the talented company that
presented the first Czech-language productions of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Don
Giovanni. Although members of the company had been performing Czech-language
plays and operas in Prague since the 1760s, political shifts during the reign of Francis I
(1793–1806), directly related to the ongoing Napoleonic wars, had caused some members
of the Bohemian Estates to regard the presentation of Czech-language stage works as a
threat to political control of the city.
The vaterländische Gesellschaft members, like Steinsberg, had also recently been
displaced from Prague. Steinsberg lost both of his directing positions when the
Bohemian Estates collectively purchased the Nostitz Theater and established a powerful
commission to manage their new enterprise. Given authority for all theatrical work in
the city, the commission opted not to renew his contract when it expired on Easter
Sunday 1798. The commission also revoked the lease to the Hibernium Theater, the
venue of the vaterländische Gesellschaft. Suddenly at liberty, Steinsberg and his Czechborn colleagues responded by organizing a touring company of about 36 actors, singers,
and dancers. In 1799 they traveled to Vienna. Steinsberg managed their business affairs
and organized additional residencies at other cities, including Karlsbad (a city they had
regularly visited in the summers for many years), Augsburg, and Freiberg. This was the
company for whom Weber’s score to Das Waldmädchen was composed, an important
detail not previously established in Weber scholarship.
As stated above, Weber’s opera Das Waldmädchen was based on Wranitzky’s
popular Viennese ballet Das Waldmädchen. Steinsberg’s company typically presented
many different kinds of stage works, including spoken plays, German opera, and ballet.
Steinsberg himself also programmed many of his own stage works. The link to
Wranitzky’s ballet was found by examining a chronicle of Steinsberg’s residency at
Augsburg from September to December 1799. Among the works he produced was a
“new version” of a ballet called Das Waldmädchen, by a dancer in his company named
Uhlich. This was a version of Wranitzky’s pantomime-ballet Das Waldmädchen, which
had premiered at Vienna’s Kärntnerthortheater on 23 September 1796. Paul Wranitzky
144
(Paul Wranitzky) was a prominent composer and violinist at Vienna’s Imperial Court
theaters. The original ballet plot had been conceived and choreographed by Joseph
Trafieri, an Italian-born solo dancer in the Viennese court ballet company. Das
Waldmädchen had become Wranitzky’s most popular stage work, due in part to its
provocative title character, a mute forest maiden. Indeed, it seems likely that the many
versions of the ballet, the many performances of Weber’s early opera, and even Weber’s
second setting of the Waldmädchen story as Silvana , should all be attributed to
considerable and ongoing public interest in such a character.
An extant playbill from the first performance of Wranitzky’s original ballet
alludes to this by stating that the ballet was inspired by reports of feral children. The
playbill also cites three particularly well-known cases. Upon further study, it became
clear that the topic had drawn the interest of the general public for decades. Table 2.1 is
an extensive list of journalistic reports, poetry, and scientific, religious, moralistic,
fictional, dramatic, and philosophical writings that deal with this same topic,
demonstrating that toward the end of the eighteenth century the European public had
an intense interest in feral children.
Interestingly, muteness is among the typical characteristics of feral children, a
natural result of extreme isolation. Another characteristic is the inability to respond to
simple commands. Feral children may display an animal-like gait, often involving all
four limbs, and prefer a diet of raw food, including animal flesh. The reports note that if
clothed when captured, the children typically wear crude garments fashioned from
animal furs and plants. Some children exhibit particularly keen sight and aural skill,
and they were delighted by the sound of music. Most tend to react swiftly and
unpredictably to even slight movements, sounds, or odors. All of these odd behaviors
and characteristics could be entertainingly and silently portrayed on the stage by an
actor or a dancer, with the aid of costumes and makeup, choreographed gestures,
dances, and music, and the subject was especially well-suited for the pantomime ballet
genre. Moreover, the notion of seeing a mute forest maiden depicted on stage clearly
145
appealed to the theater-going public in Vienna and elsewhere, contributing to the
lengthy performance history of Wranitzky’s ballet and its various spin-offs.
The relationship of this stage work to public interest in feral children is
underscored by the fact that, in addition to the cases cited on the original playbill,
several other feral children had been found during the second half of the eighteenth
century. Of those, one case was nearly concurrent with the reception of Weber’s opera.
A “brownish, naked boy” had been captured near Lacaune, France, in spring of 1798
after having been observed in the forests of the region for several years.2 His escape
only days after being captured prompted speculation among those with an awareness of
the matter about his condition and whereabouts. The boy was recaptured two years
later, on 9 January 1800, near Saint-Sernin (also known as Aveyron), at which time he
was named Victor. His name was the same as the title character of a popular fictional
story written in 1796 by French author François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil. Notably,
Ducray-Duminil’s story and Wranitzky’s ballet were both written in 1796. In 1797,
Ducray-Duminil’s Victor, ou l’enfant de la forêt was transformed into a melodramatic play
by the popular French theater innovator René Guilbert de Pixérécourt. Again, these
works, like Wranitzky’s ballet and Weber’s opera, underscore the public’s interest in the
topic of feral children, establishing that topic as one suitable for treatment in a theatrical
work.
Steinsberg’s opera version, like the other versions of the ballet, reflects the then
common practice of basing new stage works on previously successful stage works.
Steinsberg knew Wranitzky’s popular ballet, having produced Uhlich’s version of Das
Waldmädchen in 1799. By 1800, when he presented his new libretto to Weber at Freiberg,
Wranitzky’s ballet had been drawing Viennese audiences for more than four years.
Beethoven had published a set of variations on a dance melody from that score.
Transcriptions of music from the ballet were widely available for purchase, and new
versions of Das Waldmädchen (the ballet) had been presented at theaters outside of
2
Shattuck, Victor , 64.
146
Vienna (Prague, Augsburg, Mannheim ). A chronology of ballet productions related to
Wranitzky’s Das Waldmädchen is found in Appendix B of this document.
In addition to establishing the cultural context from which Weber’s early opera
was derived, this study also explored the opera’s performance history. The name of
Weber’s opera was modified repeatedly, a practice that might reflect attempts by local
producers to engage local audiences. Steinsberg modified the opera’s title in 1800,
describing the title character as stumme for the performance at Chemnitz. German stage
works with mute characters seem to have been fashionable in 1800, for at least three
stumme plays were written that year by leading authors of the German stage (Tieck and
Kotzebue). Steinsberg even produced Kotzebue’s Die kluge Frau im Walde, oder der
stumme Ritter (published 1801) at Freiberg in 1800. (See Table 3.5).
When Wenzel Müller produced a version of Weber’s opera at the Leopoldstadt
Theater in 1804–05, it was called Das Mädchen im Spessarterwald , referencing a wellknown German forest that would have been familiar to Viennese audiences. As for
Weber’s claim of a performance at Prague in Czech, records from the Estates Theater
show that on 9 March 1806 and 13 April 1806 a Czech theater company presented a
Singspiel called Nemá dívka . The composer’s name is not recorded. The German
translation of that title is Stummes Mädchen, however, quite similar to Steinsberg’s Das
stumme Waldmädchen, which also emphasized the muteness of the title character. One
can be relatively certain that Nemá dívka was a Czech translation of Weber’s early opera
and not a translation of Tieck’s spoken play Epicoene oder Das Stumme Mädchen, for the
stage work in question was a Singspiel, not a spoken play.
This study has also investigated Weber’s musical training and knowledge of
German music for the stage prior to 1800. Although he had no formal music lessons
until 1796, Weber had been raised in the company of composers, instrumentalists, and
singers as they engaged in theatrical music making an d the various practical tasks
associated with professional theater production. From his numerous tours with his
family’s theater company, he had become familiar with the popular theater works of the
late eighteenth century, including spoken plays by Kotzebue and Iffland, Singspiels by
147
Mozart, Haydn, Dittersdorf, Müller, Umlauff, Neefe, and others, and German
translations of popular French or Italian comic operas. Consequently, Weber was
thoroughly familiar with the theatrical and musical conventions of contemporary
German theater in the late eighteenth century. Naturally, his knowledge of these
conventions would have informed the music he wrote for Das Waldmädchen in 1800. A
list of German operas that may have been produced by the Weber Family Theater
Company is found in Table 1.1. A lengthier list of German operas that premiered
between 1786 and 1796 is found in Appendix A. Collectively, these types of stage works
represented to Weber the dramatic and musical norms of the genre. The conventions of
this repertoire provided him with the basis for his developing concept of German opera.
Notably, the German theater repertoire known to Weber was comparable to the works
typically programmed by Steinsberg, for Steinsberg was regarded as an expert on the
stage works of Kotzebue and Iffland, as well as other popular German stage works.
Weber’s familiarity with the musical conventions of the German popular stage
probably helped him more than any other aspect of his musical background as he
composed the score to Das Waldmädchen. He had to produce his score quickly, within
approximately three month’s time, resulting in a situation that was not conducive to
experimentation or originality, especially for an inexperienced composer. Consequently,
Weber likely drew from his already broad knowledge of the conventions of the popular
German stage, assimilating into his score whatever characteristic typologies best
supported the characters and events in Steinsberg’s libretto. That practice was not
unusual at the time and is reflected by the variety of hybridized designations now
associated with German stage works from this time: Schauspiel mit Gesang, Oper,
Operetta , romantische-komische Oper , Melodrama, romantische-heroisch-komische Oper, grosse
romantische Oper, grosse militärische Oper Zauberoper, Singspiel, komische Singspiel ,
Liederspiel , Feenmärchen, and Märchenspiel, to name only a few. Das Waldmädchen,
designated by Weber as a romantisch-komische Oper, stems directly from this milieu.
Weber was indeed a novice opera composer in 1800. He had not begun his
formal musical studies until 1796, when his mother’s illness forced his family to stop
148
touring. Consequently, he had only four years of lessons in theory and composition
from an assortment of different teachers when he began composing his score to Das
Waldmädchen. At Hildburghausen, he had studied piano and composition with Johann
Heuschkel. After his family moved to Salzburg in 1798 he took music lessons from
Michael Haydn, Salzburg’s court composer and organist. Weber’s first published music
dates from this period, attesting to his budding talents as a composer; it was merely a set
of six fughettas published in open score, however. Toward the end of 1798 Weber and
his father moved to Munich. In that city he took singing lessons with the excellent opera
singer and vocal pedagogue Giovanni Valesi (Johann Walleshauser), since his father
believed it essential to learn sound vocal technique if one aspired to compose operas.
He also continued taking piano and com position lessons with Johann Kalcher, a pupil of
Munich theorist Joseph Grätz, who had himself been a pupil of Joseph Haydn. Weber’s
father clearly intended for his youngest son to be trained in the same musical lineage as
his older sons, and both Fridolin and Edmund Weber had studied composition with
Joseph Haydn, Michael Haydn’s older brother. Weber developed well in this
environment. Under Kalcher’s guidance he composed piano sonatas, sets of variations,
string trios, and songs, along with several more ambitious compositions for voice and
orchestra. These included a Mass and his first dramatic work, a Singspiel called Die
Macht der Liebe und des Weins (1798–99, lost). Weber’s compositions written before
August 1800 are listed in Table 1.2.
While at Munich, Weber was also apprenticed to Czech-born actor and
playwright Alois Senefelder, an acquaintance of his father. Franz Anton was eager for
his son to learn Senefelder’s new printing method. In May 1799 Weber and his father
left Munich temporarily for a summer tour featuring Carl Maria as a pianist and
composer. The pair visited Stuttgart, Bamberg, Hildburghausen (their former home),
Freiberg, Prague, and Karlsbad, where Karl Franz Guolfinger, Ritter von Steinsberg and
his troupe were in residence. The Webers returned to Munich early in 1800, briefly
resuming their affiliation with Senefelder. While the Webers had been touring,
Senefelder and his partner, Franz Geissner, were awarded a fifteen-year patent for
149
lithographic printing (in September 1799). The Webers quietly developed a plan to
establish their own lithography firm beyond the reach of Senefelder’s patent. Three
months later, the Webers moved to Freiberg, arriving in August 1800.
On 24 August 1800 Steinsberg and his troupe also arrived at Freiberg to begin a
three-month residency. About a month later Franz Anton advertised that he would be
opening his own lithography works at Freiberg, but the business never opened. Instead,
Carl Maria devoted his time busily composing a score for Steinsberg’s new libretto.
Through his collaboration with Steinsberg, Weber probably hoped to strengthen his
professional profile to a greater extent than he might have achieved by opening a
lithography business.
Clearly, Weber’s encounter with Steinsberg in 1800 influenced much of his
subsequent career. Steinsberg provided the ambitious boy with a chance to have his
new score performed by an important and highly respected company. He brought
critical attention to Weber’s music by producing the opera himself at Freiberg and
Chemnitz. Steinsberg also perform ed the leading tenor role of Prinz Sigmund von
Mathusien on those occasions. As the opera’s producer, librettist, and leading male
actor/singer, Steinsberg may have prompted, or at least requested, som e aspects of
Weber’s score. Surely he would have helped to guide his young partner.
After their collaboration in 1800 Steinsberg and the Webers parted ways.
Steinsberg went on to direct important German theater companies at St. Petersburg
(1802–03) and Moscow (1803–05). He died in Moscow in 1806. This more detailed
knowledge about Steinsberg’s career helps to reframe the relationship between Weber
and his librettist. The thirteen-year-old composer had indeed been fortunate to work
with an internationally respected author, stage director, and actor/singer/comic.
Through Steinsberg, Weber entered the world of professional theater, composing his
score to Das Waldmädchen with the assurance that it would be performed by an
experienced and talented cast at a prestigious venue, with Steinsberg performing the
leading male role himself. That experience subsequently influenced Weber’s career for
several years, partly because Steinsberg was so well known, widely traveled, and highly
150
respected by other theater professionals. After Steinsberg’s death, Weber revisited the
Waldmädchen story, asking poet Franz Karl Hiemer to rewrite Steinsberg’s libretto, which
became the opera Silvana in 1810. Notably, Weber reused some of the music from the
score to Das Waldmädchen, relying again on established conventions.
German opera was a rather loosely defined genre in the early nineteenth century,
not limited to a specific set of elements or definitions. Weber’s subsequent music for the
theater reflects the evolving nature of German opera as he understood it, for when Franz
Danzi encouraged him to write more music for the stage in 1807, Weber responded with
three very different types of stage works, only one of which was an opera. The first was
the melodrama-cantata Der erste Ton (J. 58), written in 1807. The second was incidental
music for a production of Schiller's Turandot (J. 75), that was to be presented at the court
theater of Stuttgart. The third was Weber’s self-described “romantische heroischkomische Oper” Silvana , composed between July 1808 and February 1810. He revised
Silvana for productions in 1810, 1812, and 1817. A list of all of his operatic works is
found in Table 4.2.
Steinsberg’s libretto challenged Weber to write descriptive music for the
orchestra. The genre of pantomime ballet that was frequently produced by the same
companies the produced popular German operas on the stages of Europe at the dawn of
the nineteenth century may have provided Weber with some helpful ideas.3 Weber
might have consulted Wranitzky’s score for examples of the music that had
accompanied the mute title character in Uhlich’s 1799 version of the ballet, for example.
Silwana’s scenes required dramatically expressive orchestral music that could help
convey her feelings to the audience. Her orchestra-accompanied scenes had to be woven
into Weber’s score to fit with the usual conventions of Singspiel, alternating spoken
Regarding the relationship between Wranitzky’s pantomime-ballet and
Weber’s opera, an important precedent had been established prior to 1800. The vividly
dramatic music of Gluck’s pantomime-ballet Don Juan, ou Le festin de pierre (Vienna,
1761) strongly influenced Mozart’s score to Il dissoluto punito, ossia Il Don Giovanni (K.
527, 1787). Jeremy Hayes, Bruce Alan Brown, Max Loppert, and Winton Dean, “Gluck,
Christoph Willibald Ritter von,” in Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 3 April
2005), http://www.grovemusic.com .
3
151
dialogue, with arias, ensemble numbers, and occasional instrumental numbers.
Although his score was only modestly successful, Weber fulfilled his Chemnitz critic’s
promise of “better and riper fruit” nearly ten years later when he completed Silvana .
Opting to face again the challenges posed by Steinsberg’s original libretto, Weber forced
himself to refine his use of orchestral music to enhance the dramatic effectiveness of his
score, a characteristic he convincingly achieved in his mature operas, Der Freischütz (J.
277, c. 1817–21) and Euryanthe (J. 291, 1822–23), and Oberon (J. 306, 1825–26).
152
APPENDIX A
CHRONOLOGY OF GERMAN OPERAS
PREMIERED OR COMPOSED BETWEEN 1787 AND 1796
YEAR
LOCATION /DATE
TITLE
COMPOSER
1787
Biberach, Feb. 2
Die Entführung aus dem
Serail
Die gar zu strenge
Kinderzucht
Die Liebe im Narrenhaus
Im Finstern ist nicht gut
tappen
Das Fest der Schäfer
Die Illumination
Das tartarische Gesetz
Das Findelkind, oder
Unverhofft kömt oft
J. K. Knecht
Kremsmünster, Feb. 4
Vienna, Apr. 12
Vienna, Oct. 12
Berlin, Oct. 18
Vienna, Nov. 25
Mannheim, Mar. 4
Not performed
1788
Vienna, Jan. 7
Berlin, Jan. 11
Biberach, Jan. 28
Berlin, Feb. 26
Regensburg, Apr. 18
Regensburg, May 3
Kremsmünster,
June 10
Stuttgart, June 13
Biberach, Oct. 28
F. X. Süssmayr
K. Dittersdorf
J. B. Schenk
O. C. E. Kospoth
P. Kürzinger
G. Benda
G. Benda
Richard Löwenherz, König von
England
Grétry, trans. by
Gottlieb Stephanie, the
younger
Andromeda
J. F. Reichardt
Der Erntekranz
J. H. Knecht
Der Kluge Jacob
O. C. E. von Kospoth
Lorenz und Suschen
B. Schack
1
Der Krautschneider
B. Schack
Nicht mehr als sechs Schüsseln F. X. Süssmayr
Tamira
Der lahme Husar
J. R. Zumsteeg
J. K. Knecht
Probably the same as Kaspar der Krautschneider, which premiered in Vienna on
21 April 1785.
1
153
Appendix A—continued
YEAR
LOCATION /DATE
TITLE
COMPOSER
1788
Karlsruhe, Nov. 26
Adelheid von
Veltheim
Der Eremit auf Formentera
Silene (German version of
Dittersdorf’s Democrito
corretto, 1787)
Don Quixotte
Der Sylphe
Der blinde Ehemann
Der letzte Rausch
F. Teyber
Der Schulz im Dorfe, oder der
verliebte Herr Doktor
Die Hochzeit des Figaro
Der Triumph der Treue (after
Wieland’s Oberon)
Im Dunkel ist nicht gut
munkeln
Don Juan (trans. by H. G.
Schmieder, first German
performance)
Jery und Bätely
Der Wundermann
Die väterliche Rache
Hieronymus Knicker
Der dumme Gärtner aus dem
Gebirge, oder Die zween
Anton*
J. Knecht
Mannheim, Dec. 14
Berlin, n. d.
Berlin, n. d.
Munich, n. d.
Breslau, n. d.
location unknown
1789
Biberach, Jan. 26
Brno, Jan. n. d.
Munich, Feb. 7
Vienna, Feb. n. d.
Mayence, March 13
Berlin, March 30
Graz, Apr. n. d.
Kremsmünster, July 1
Vienna, July 7
Vienna, July 12
P. Ritter
K. Dittersdorf
I. von Beecke
F. Danzi
J. C. Kaffka
J. Mederitsch
(-Gallus)
K. Dittersdorf
F. Danzi
K. Dittersdorf
W. A. Mozart
J. F. Reichardt
S. Spindler
F. X. Süssmayr
K. Dittersdorf
B. Schack2 and F. X.
Gerl
Benedikt (Emmanuel) Schack was a talented tenor, flutist, actor, and composer
of Bohemian origin. He joined Emmanuel Schikaneder’s traveling theater company in
1786 and made extensive tours of southern Germany and Austria with that company
before it settled in Vienna in 1789. According to Peter Branscombe, Schack’s fame as a
composer rests on his series of “Anton” Singspiels, all of which were written for and
performed by Schikaneder’s company. The libretti to these works were written by
Schikaneder, who also played the role of Anton. Each “Anton” Singspiel in the table is
indicated with an asterisk. Schack com posed much of the music to the “Anton”
Singspiels in collaboration with F. X. Gerl. Schack was also a close friend to Mozart,
2
154
YEAR
LOCATION /DATE
TITLE
COMPOSER
1789
Vienna, July 25
Jacob und Nannerl, oder Der
angenehme Traum
Charlottenburg,
July 29
Munich, Aug.n. d.
Freihaus, Sept. 5
Claudine von Villa Bella
B. Schack,
F. M Pechàcek and
F. X. Gerl
J. F. Reichardt
Vienna, Sept. 26
Budapest, Oct. 18
Vienna, Nov. 7
Vienna, Dec. 9
Brünn, n. d.
Schleswig, n. d.
Breslau, n. d.
1790
Vienna, Jan. 6
Mannheim, Apr. 11
Vienna, Apr. 17
Vienna, May 10
Breslau, May 26
Der Quasimann
Fernando und Jariko, oder Die
Indianer
Die verdeckten Sachen
F. Danzi
F. Teyber
B. Schack, F. X. Gerl
and J. G. Lickl
J. B. Paneck
P. Wranitzky
J. B. Schenke
Die christliche Judenbraut
Oberon, König der Elfen
Das unvermuthete
(unterbrochene) Seefest
Die Hochzeit des Figaro
K. Dittersdorf
Huon und Amande, after
K. Hanke
Wieland’s Oberon
Der Talisman, oder Der seltene J. C. Kaffka
Spiegel
Was macht der Anton im
Winter*
Der Sklavenhändler
Don Quixotte und Sancho
Pansa
Der Fall ist noch weit seltner,
oder Die geplagten Ehemänner
(German version of Martin
y Soler’s Una cosa rara )
Das rothe Käppchen
B. Schack, F. X. Gerl,
and others
P. Winter
F. X. Gerl
B. Schack
K. Dittersdorf
who composed the role of Tamino in Die Zauberflöte specifically for him. (It is presumed
that Schack himself performed Tamino’s flute solos.) He was also the first Germanlanguage Don Gonsalvo (Don Ottavio) and Count Almaviva (Vienna, 1792). Peter
Branscombe, “Schack, Benedikt (Emmanuel),” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, 2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2000), 22: 424–25.
155
YEAR
LOCATION /DATE
TITLE
COMPOSER
1790
Vienna, June 18
Der Frühling, oder Der Anton
ist noch nicht tot*
Der unschuldige Betrug, oder
Auf dem Lande kennt man die
Rache nicht
Bastien und Bastienne
Das Sonnenfest der Braminen
Der Stein der Weisen, oder Die
Zauberinsel
and others
F. Kauer
Vienna,June 22
Vienna, Aug. 18
Vienna, Sept. 9
Vienna, Sept. 11
Brno, n. d.
Munich, n. d.
Munich, n. d.
Munich, n. d.
Hokus-Pokus, oder Das
Gaukelspiel
Das Singspiel ohne Titel
Die zerstörte Hirtenfeier
Das Herz behält seine Rechte
Nina, oder Wahnsinn aus
Liebe
Die Räthsel
Bastien und Bastienne
Bella und Fernando, oder Die
Satyr
Freitags Reisen
Jery und Bäteli
Psyche
Scherz, List und Rache
Stuttgart, Jan. 10
Vienna, Jan. 12
Der Eremit auf Formentera
Die Wiener Zeitung
Königsberg, Jan. 16
Berlin, Feb. 3
Vienna, March 2
Louise
Die dreifache Liebhaber
Der Schiffspatron, oder Der
neue Gutsherr (oder Gürge
und Hannchen)
Sultan Wampum, oder Die
Wunsche
Breslau, Nov. 4
Vienna, Nov. 4?
Aschaffenburg, n. d.
Mainz, n. d.
Aschaffenburg, n. d.
Mainz, n. d.
Vienna, n. d.
Berlin, n. d.
1791
Mainz, March 7
156
F. Kauer
W. Müller
J. B. Henneberg,
F. X. Gerl, B. Schack
and W. A. Mozart
K. Dittersdorf
J. B. Schenk
I. von Beecke
I. von Beecke
I. von Beecke
F. Kerpen
F. Kauer
O. C. E. Kospoth
S. Spindler
P. Winter
P. Winter
P. Winter
D. F. Dieter
B. Schack and F. X.
Gerl
F. L. Benda
P. Wranitzky
K. Dittersdorf
C. D. Stegmann
YEAR
LOCATION /DATE
1791
Frankfurt, May 1
1792
TITLE
COMPOSER
Liebe und Versuchung (Cosí
fan tutte, trans. by
H. G. Schmieder and C. D.
Stegmann)
Anton bei Hofe, oder Das
Vienna, June 4
Namensfest*
Kaspar, der Fagottist
Vienna, June 8
Der Erntekranz
Vienna, July 9?
(Ärndtekranz), oder Das
Schnitterfest
Der Spiegelritter
Frankfurt, Sept. 11
Die Zauberflöte
Vienna, Sept. 30
Ariadne und Bacchus
Laxenburg, n. d.
Lila
Not performed
Amor und graue Haare
Brno, n. d.
Der Liebhaber im Schlafrock
Brno, n. d.
Lambach, not performed Der rauschige Hans
Walmir und Gertraud, oder
Vienna, n. d.
Man kann es ja probieren
Vienna, Apr. 24
Vienna, May 4
Vienna, June 4
Vienna, June 23
Vienna, July 7
Frankfurt, July 15
Vienna, Sept. 9
Vienna, Sept. 15
Munich, Aug. 31
Vienna, Oct. 6
Der redliche Landmann
Moses, oder Der Auszug aus
Ägypten
Die Serenade, oder Der
gefoppte Alte
Das Schlaraffenland
Johanna von Weimar
Heinrich der Löwe
Der Schuster-Feierabend, oder
Kasperl, die fressende
Schildwache (G. J.
Ziegelhauser)
Der Renegat, oder Anton in
der Türkei*
Die Thomasnacht
Rudolf von Felsick
157
W. A. Mozart
and others
W. Müller
J. B. Schenk
I. Walter
W. A. Mozart
M. T. von Paradis
J. F. Reichardt
S. Spindler
S. Spindler
F. X. Süssmayr
P. Wranitzky
J. B. Henneberg
F. X. Süssmayr
F. Kauer
B. Schack, F. X. Gerl
J. B. Henneberg
C. D. Stegmann
A. Volanek
and others
F. S. Destouches
P. Wranitzky
YEAR
LOCATION /DATE
1792
Vienna, Oct. 13
Vienna, Dec. 18
Kassel,n. d.
Vienna, n. d.
Brno, n. d.
Prague, n. d.
Mannheim, n. d.
1793
Vienna, Jan. 12
Vienna, Jan 27/28
Vienna, Feb. 21
Berlin, March n. d.
Frankfurt, May 3
Hamburg, Sept. 3
Vienna, Sept. 10
Vienna, Oct. 10
Vienna, Oct. 14
Prague, n. d.
Vienna, n. d.
1794
Vienna, Feb. 4
Vienna, March 11
Vienna, Apr. 8
Vienna, July 26
Oels, Aug. 16
Vienna, Oct. 21
TITLE
COMPOSER
Der Strassensammler, oder
Die Prüfung der Herzen, oder
Ein gutes Herz ziert jeden
Stand
Die Antwort auf die Frage:
Was begehrt das
Frauenzimmer
Titania
Der Schulkandidat
Die vier Vormunder
Die Maskarade im Serail, oder
Die grosse Löwenjagd
Die Weihe
J. Weigl
Die Eisenkönigin
Der eifersüchtige Bauer, oder
Der Schulmeister im Ofenloch
Merkur, der Heiratsstifter,
oder Der Geiz im Geldkasten
Erwin und Elmire
Das Fest der Winzer
Der Mädchenmarkt zu Ninive
Der wohltätige Derwisch, oder
Die Schellenkappe (also as Die
Zaubertrommel )
Das Neusonntagskind
Die Waldmänner
Der Schuster-Feierabend
Die Post-Station
J. B. Henneberg
B. Schack
Das Fest der Lazoronen
Die Schwestern von Prag
Das Petermännchen
Die beiden Nannerln, oder Das
chinesische Feuerwerk zu
Ehren der Nannerln
Das Gespenst mit der
Trommel
Der blinde Ehemann
P. Wranitzky
W. Müller
J. Weigl
B. Schack
158
B. Schack
G. C. Grosheim
M. T. von Paradis
S. Spindler
A. Volanek
P. Winter
P. Wranitzky
J. F. Reichardt
F. L. A. Kunzen
O. C. E. Kospoth
W. Müller, and
J. B. Henneberg
W. Müller
J. B. Henneberg
A. Volanek
P. Wranitzky
K. Dittersdorf
J. M. Ruprecht
YEAR
LOCATION /DATE
1794
Mannheim, Nov. 4
COMPOSER
Die lustigen Weiber von
Windsor
Der Spiegel von Arkadien
Victor und Heloise, oder Das
Hexengericht
Pyramus und Thisbe
Doktor Fausts Liebgurtel
Frage und Antwort, oder Ein
altes Haus [Weib] kann auch
was Gutes stiften
Il Turco in Italia
Der Schuster-Feierabend
(K. F. Hensler)
P. Ritter
B. Schack
Vienna, n. d.
Das Häuschen im Walde, oder
Antons Reise nach seinem
Geburtsort*
Der Scherenschleifer
Don Quixote der Zweyte
Idris und Zenide
Die gute Mutter
Gott Mars und der Hauptman
von Bärenzahn, oder Der
eiserne Mann, oder Der
Wechsel Gott Mars
Achmet und Almanzine
Die edle Rache
Der Schach von Schiras
Zum Teufel, ein Hydraulikus
Die befreyten Gwelfen
Der Einzug in das
Feindesquartier
Die natürlichen Wunder
Augsburg, n. d.
Vienna, n. d.
Rudolph von Hochburg
Das maroccanische Reich
Vienna, Nov. 14
Prague, Dec. 4
Vienna, Dec. 7
Flensburg, n. d.
Graz, n. d.
Vienna, n. d.
Augsburg, n. d.
1795
TITLE
Vienna, Jan. 6?
Vienna, Jan. 24
Oels, Feb. 4
Vienna, May 9
Vienna, May 11
Oels, May 30
Vienna, July 17
Vienna, Aug. 27
Oels, Sept. 15
Oels, Oct. 17
Oels, Oct. 29
Vienna, n. d.
159
F. X. Süssmayr
F. X. Partsch
A. Eberl
K. Hanke
B. Schack
F. X. Süssmayr
A. Volanek
J. B. Henneberg
K. Dittersdorf
F. K. Süssmayr
P. Wranitzky
F. X. Süssmayr
J. B. Schenk
F. X. Süssmayr
K. Dittersdorf
K. Dittersdorf
K. Dittersdorf
J. Haibel
J. M. Ruprecht
(attribution uncertain)
F. Teyber
P. Wranitzky
YEAR
LOCATION /DATE
1796
Hamburg, Feb 27
Vienna, Apr. 7
Vienna, May 14
Vienna, June 10
Oels, June 11
Vienna, June 14
Oels, June 25
Vienna, June 28
Vienna, Sept. 27
Vienna, Oct. 25
Oels, Oct. 29
Vienna, Nov. 6
Frankfurt, n. d.
Breslau, n.d.
Vienna, n.d.
TITLE
COMPOSER
Der Triumph der Liebe, oder
Das kühne Abentheuer
Das Faustrecht in Thüringen
(Part 1)
Der tiroler Wastel
Der alte Überall und Nirgends
Ugolino
Das unterbrochene Opferfest
Die lustigen Weiber von
Windsor
Das Faustrecht in Thüringen
(Part 2)
Die Freiwilligen
Östreichs treue Brüder, oder
Die Scharfschützen in Tirol,
oder Der Landsturm
Der schöne Herbsttag
Der Dorfbarbier3
Der Brautigam in der Klemme,
after Molieré’s
Le mariage forcé
Achmet und Zenaide
Die zwölf schlafenden
Jungfrauen
C. D. Stegmann
F. Kauer
J. Haibel
W. Müller
K. Dittersdorf
P. Winter
K. Dittersdorf
F. Kauer
F. X. Süssmayr
J. Haibel
K. Dittersdorf
J. B. Schenk
J. André
S. Spindler
M. Stegmayer
Margaret A. Griffel’s Operas in German: A Dictionary (New York: Greenwood
Press, 1990), Appendix 6: Chronology, 374–75, provided a starting point for Appendix 1.
Subsequent additions were made after consulting: The Viking Opera Guide, Amanda
Holden, Nicholas Kenyon, and Stephen Walsh, eds. (London: Penguin Group, 1993);
There are conflicting dates listed in various sources for the premiere of Der
Dorfbarbier. According to Peter Branscombe, box-office records from the
Kärntnertortheater indicate that the first performance of this work took place on 6
November 1796.
3
160
Dorothea Link, The National Court Theatre in Mozart’s Vienna: Sources and Documents
1783–1792 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998); Charles H. Parsons, The Mellen Opera
Reference Index (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen, 1986), vols. 1–4; and W. E. Yates, Theatre in
Vienna: A Critical History, 1776–1995 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
The following articles in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera , ed. Stanley Sadie (London:
Macmillan, 1992) were also consulted: Thomas Baumann, “Bretzner, Christoph
Friedrich,” 1: 600, and “Paul Weidmann,” 4: 1122–23; Peter Branscombe, “Haibel [Haibl,
Heibel], (Johann Petrus) Jakob [Jacob],” 2: 596.
Additional titles, dates, locations, and composer’s names were drawn from the
following articles and works lists in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd
ed., ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2000): Rudolf Angermüller and Teresa
Hrdlick-Reichenberger, “Joseph Weigl,” 27: 215–17; Thomas Baumann and Zdenka
Pilkova, “Georg (Anton [Jiri Antonín] Benda,” 3: 227–29; Peter Branscombe: “Gerl, Franz
Xaver,” 9: 699–700, “Henneberg, Johann Baptist,” 11: 375, “Kauer, Ferdinand,” 13: 415–
17, “Mederitsch (-Gallus), Johann (Georg Anton),” 16: 217–18, “Ruprecht, (Josef)
Martin,” 21:894–95, “Schack, Benedikt (Emmanuel), 22:424–25, “Schenk, Johann Baptist”
22: 475–77, “Seyfried, Ignaz (Xaver), Ritter von,” 23: 184, “Stegmayer, Matthäus,” 24:
324–25, “Umlauf [Umlauff], Ignaz,” 26: 67–8 ; George J. Buelow, “Paul Ignaz Kürzinger,”
14: 52–3; David Charlton and M. Elizabeth Bartlet, “Grétry, André-Ernest-Modeste,” 10:
385–95; Paul Corneilson and Peter M. Alexander, “Danzi, Franz (Ignaz),” 7:4–6;
Margaret Grave and Jay Lane, “Dittersdorf, Carl Ditters von,” 7: 385–391; Michael
Ladenburger, “Knecht, Justin Heinrich,” 13: 690–91; Adolf Layer and Fiona Little,
“Beecke, (Notger) Ignaz (Franz) von,” 3: 67–69; Gunter Maier, “Zumsteeg [Zum Steeg],
Johann Rudolf,” 27: 883–85; Andrew D. McCredie, “Stegmann, Carl David,” 24:323–24;
Wolfgang Plath, “Johann [Jean] Andre,” 1:618–19; Milan Poštolka , “Partsch [Bartsch,
Parc], Franz [Frantisek] Xaver,” 19: 176, and “Volanek [Wolanek, Wollaneck, Wollanek],
Antonin (Josef Alois) [Anton], 26: 878; Milan Poštolka and Robert Hickman, “Wranitzky
[Vranický, Wraniczky, Wranizky], Paul [Pavel],” 27:575–77; Klaus Rönnau, “Hanke
[Hancke], Karl,” 10: 820, and “Spindler, (Franz) Stanislaus,” 24: 182–83; Klaus Rönnau
161
and Thomas Bauman, “Kaffka [Engelmann], Johann Christoph,” 13: 307–08; Linda Tyler
and Caryl L. Clark, “Süssmayr [Süssmayer], Franz Xaver [Dolcevillico, Francesco
Saverio], 24: 734–36; Hubert Unverricht, “Kerpen, Freiherr Hugo Franz Karl Alexander
von [Hugo Friedrich],” 13:499, and “Kospoth, Otto Carl Erdmann,” 13:834–35; Roland
Würtz, “Ferdinand Fränzl,” 9: 213; and Roland Würtz, Valerie Walden, and Robert
Münster, “Peter Ritter,” 21:449–50.
The appendix includes additional German stage works listed in Alfred
Loewenberg, Annals of Opera: 1597 – 1940 (Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield, 1978). In
cases where there are discrepancies among sources, only attributions from works lists in
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, were included, unless
otherwise stated.
162
APPENDIX B
PERFORMANCE HISTORY OF
THE PANTOMIME-BALLET
DAS WALDMÄDCHEN: 1796 TO 1801
A. Abbreviations and Source Materials
ADT3, 1799
Allgemeine deutsche Theaterzeitung, Jahrgang 3 ( 1799). No. 2.
Brünn: Mährischen Lehnbank, 1800.
TJA, 1799
A. L. Dahlstedt. Theater-Journal derjenigen Schauspiele und Opern,
welche in /Augsburg von der Karl Ritter von Steinsbergischen
Gesellschaft deutscher Schauspieler vom 12. September bis 31. Dezember
1799 ausgeführt wurden. Augsburg: n.p., 1800.
TL, 1798
Theater und Litteratur 9 (Prague, 14 June 1798).
BW, 12 Der böhmische Wandersmann, 1801. No. 12.
BW, 19 Der böhmische Wandersmann, 1801, No. 19.
Playbill
773.042-D, Theaterzettel from the Theatersammlung, Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek .
Hadamowsky
Franz Hadamowsky. Die wiener Hoftheater (Staatstheater) 1776-1966:
Verzeichnis der aufgeführten Stücke mit Bestandsnachweis und täglichen
Spielplan. 2 vols. Vienna: Prachner, 1966. 2: 481.
163
B. Chronology of Productions
CITY/THEATER/DATE
Vienna
Kärntnerthortheater
1796 23 September
25 September
TITLE/DESCRIPTION/SOURCE
Der Strich durch die Rechnung , Lustspiel in 4 acts by J.
F. Jünger. (Cast: Obrist of Gißig/Hr. Stephanie d.
jüngere; Henriette, his daughter/Mlle. Stephanie;
Charlotte, his niece/Mad. Weissenthurn; Karl, his
son/Hr. Klungmann; Ussessor von Brand/Dauer;
Johann, Karls servant/SchüßNettchen; chamber maid
to the young ladies/Mad. Stierle; Konrad, headwaiter
at the inn/Hr. Kopfmüller; Ewald, an old sergeant/
Rettich). Followed by (for the first time) a new comic
ballet by Herr Joseph Trafieri: Das Waldmädchen.
Contents: the pair of boys found in the woods
of Lithuania, the wild one from Hannover, and the
young girl found near Champagne provided the
inspiration for this small ballet. The story follows:
while enjoying a hunt away from his homeland a
Polish prince, with the aid of his friend, discovers a
wild maiden. [Playbill, Hadamowsky]1
La pietra simpatica (Der sympathetische Stein), a comic
Singspiel, (Cast: Alphonsina/Mad. Codecasa;
Laurette/Mlle. Gasmann d. ält; Henriette/Gasmann
d. jüng.; Felio/Hr. Baglioni; D. Soffio/Ungrisani; D.
Macario/Saal; Conrad/Vogel. Followed by (for the
second time) a new comic ballet by Herr Joseph
Trafieri Das Waldmädchen. Contents: The pair
of boys found in the woods of Lithuania, the wild one
from Hannover, and the young girl found near
Champagne provided the inspiration for this small
ballet. The story follows: while enjoying a hunt away
Paul Wranitzky is credited in all modern sources as the composer of the original
score to this ballet, which was choreographed by Trafieri, a member of the court ballet in
Vienna. See Milan Poštolka and Robert Hickman, “Wranitzky [Vranický, Wraniczky,
Wranizky], Paul [Pavel],” Grove Music Online , ed. L. Macy (Accessed 31 July 2004]),
http://www.grovemusic.com.
1
164
CITY/THEATER/DATE
(continued)
from his homeland a Polish prince, with the aid of his
friend, discovers a wild maiden. [Playbill,
Hadamowsky]
National Hoftheater nächst der Burg (or Burgtheater)
3 October
La pietra simpatica (Der sympathetische Stein), a comic
Singspiel. Followed by the comic ballet by Herr
Joseph Trafieri: Das Waldmädchen. [Playbill,
Hadamowsky]
4 October
11 October
For the first time: Die Oesterreicher, Lustspiel in one
act. Followed by the comic ballet by Herr Trafieri: Das
Waldmädchen [Playbill, Hadamowsky].
For the third time: Die Oesterreicher , Lustspiel in one
act. Followed by the comic ballet by Herr Trafieri: Das
National Hoftheater nächst der Burg
14 October
The first act of the opera: Il Moro /Der Mohr. Followed
by the comic ballet by Herr Trafieri: Das Waldmädchen
[Playbill, Hadamowsky].
20 October
Der Bettelstudent, oder: Das Donnerwetter. Lustspiel in 2
acts. (Cast: Hr. Bergopzoom, Mad. Schüß, Hr. Müller
(Sohn), Mayer, Baumann, Mad. Rivolla. Followed by
the comic ballet by Herr Trafieri: Das Waldmädchen
165
CITY/THEATER/DATE
23 October
Die unmögliche Sache, Lustspiel after the English The
Crow (Cast: Hr. Brockmann, Mad. Stierle, Mlle
Stephanie, Mad. Weissenthurn, Hr. Ziegler, Schüß,
Weidmann, Dauer, Müller (Vater), Mad. Dauer, Hr.
Sannens). Followed by the comic ballet by Herr
Trafieri: Das Waldmädchen [Playbill, Hadamowsky]
8 November
The second act of the opera: Il Moro/ Der Mohr.
Followed by the comic ballet by Herr Trafieri: Das
17 November
2
Ariadne auf Naxos, a Melodrama in one act.2 Next, a
Lustspiel in one act: Die große Batterie . (Cast: Mad.
Nouseul, Hr. Müller (Sohn), Mad. Doppler, Mlle
Stephanie., Hr. Rettich, Mad. Dauer, Hr. Sannens,
Leiser). Followed by the comic ballet by Herr Trafieri:
Das Waldmädchen. The music is by Herr Weigl the
younger, in service to the National Court Theater.3
This was probably a production of Georg Benda’s melodrama Ariadne auf Naxos
(1775).
This is the only playbill from Vienna that states a composer’s name when
announcing a performance of the ballet Das Waldmädchen. It is not clear whether this
name was listed in error, or if a different score was used for this performance. No first
name is mentioned. The playbill may refer to Joseph Weigl, (1766–1846), who assumed
most of Salieri’s duties at the court theaters in 1791. However, this ballet does not
appear in most lists of Joseph Weigl’s stage works. Vienna’s court ballet was created in
1791, at which time Weigl began a productive series of collaborations with dancers
Antonio Muzzarelli, Salvatore Viganò, and Giuseppe Trafieri. Hence, it is entirely
possible that he composed a score for this work by Trafieri. However, Joseph had a
younger brother, Thaddäus (1776–1840), who from 1795 was employed by the court as
an arranger (especially of piano scores) for the court theater’s music publishing house.
This ballet is not listed among his identified works either. Perhaps a piano score by
Thaddäus, the younger brother, was used for this performance. See Rudolph
Angermüller and Teresa Hrdlicka-Reichenberger: “Weigl,” in Grove Music Online , ed. L.
Macy (Accessed 31 July 2004), http://www.grovemusic.com .
3
166
CITY/THEATER/DATE
(continued)
[Playbill, Hadamowsky]
6 December
Der Adjutant (Cast: Hr. Stephanie de Jüngere, Mad.
Adamberger, Hr. Klingmann, Mad. Weissenthurn,
Hr. Mayer, Hr. Sannens, Hr. Kettich, Mlle Büteau, Hr.
Leiser). At the close, the comic ballet by Herr Trafieri:
Das Waldmädchen [Playbill, Hadamowsky]
8 December
Il Moro . At the close, the comic ballet by Herr Trafieri:
Das Waldmädchen [Playbill, Hadamowsky]
14 Dec ember
Der Strich durch die Rechnung, Lustspiel in 4 acts by F.
J. Jünger. After this, the comic ballet by Herr Trafieri:
Das Waldmädchen
26 Dec ember
1797 1, 8, 28 January
No playbill survives from this performance of the
ballet [Hadamovsky]
. . . At the close, the comic ballet by Herr Trafieri: Das
Waldmädchen [Playbills, Hadamowsky]
8 February
(as above)
15, 21 February
(as above)
27 February
(as above)
167
CITY/THEATER/DATE
28 February
7 March
(secured with wax over the original playbill, which
advertises the ballet Alonzo und Coro, is a half page
announcement that reads: “Because of the
unfortunate illness of Herr Angiolini, the ballet
scheduled to be performed at the
Kärntnerthortheater: Alonzo und Cora , will not be
given. In its place: Das Waldmädchen.”
. . .At the close, the comic ballet by Herr Trafieri: Das
Waldmädchen [Playbill, Hadamowsky]
26 March
(as above)
4 April
(as above)
29 April
. . .At the close, the comic ballet by Herr Trafieri: Das
4 May
(as above)
21 May
(as above)
3, 23 June - . . .
At the close, the comic ballet by Herr Trafieri: Das
11 July
11 and 31 August
19 September
4 , 31 October
17 November
(as above)
(as above)
(as above)
(as above)
(as above)
168
CITY/THEATER/DATE
4 December
(as above)
1798
12 February
8, 24 March
15 April
10 May
(as above)
(as above)
(as above)
(as above)
Prague
Theater of the Estates (formerly the Nostitz Theater)
28 May
Der Kammerhusar, S ingspiel in 2 acts, “. . .a new
adaptation made especially for this theater by Herr
Brunetti of the comic ballet Das Waldmädchen, with Mlle
Venturini appearing for the first time in the title
role.” [TL, 1798, 221]
2 June
Vienna
14 July
Der schwarze Mann, L. in 2 acts by Gotter, with the
ballet: Das Waldmädchen. [TL, 1798, 222].
. . . At the close, the comic ballet by Hr. Trafieri: Das
22 July
(pasted in as a substitution due to Mad. Galvani’s
illness) Das Waldmädchen [Playbill, Hadamowsky]
19 August
16, 27 September
17 October
2, 29 November
12, 20 Dec ember
. . .At the close, the comic ballet by Hr. Trafieri: Das
(as above)
(as above)
(as above)
(as above)
[Playbill; Hadamowsky; ADT3, 1799, 19]4
4
Also listed for 12 December 1798, at Vienna’s Burgtheater: Die falschen
Vertraulichkeiten, L. Das Waldmädchen, B.[ADT3, 1799, 17].
169
CITY/THEATER/DATE
1799
(as above) [Playbill; Hadamowsky; ADT3, 1799, 20]
9 January
Mannheim
10 January
29 January
Vienna
2, 22 February
Augsburg
16, 24 September
Der Schiffbruch , oder die Erben, Lustspiel in 1 act by
Steigentesch. Cast: Anton Waller/Hr. Müller; Jakob
Waller/Hr. Heck; Friz Waller/Hr. Meyer; Selmo, ein
Mahler/Hr. Stentsch[sic]; Frau von Werden/Mad. Meyer;
Blidt/Hr. Backhaus; Franz/Hr. Leonhard. Followed
by the ballet: Das Waldmädchen.5 [ADT3, 1799, 38]
Der Schiffbruch , oder die Erben. Followed by the ballet:
Das Waldmädchen. [ADT3, 1799, 38]
Waldmädchen [Playbill; Hadamowsky; ADT3, 1799, 20]
Die Entführung, Lustspiel in 3 acts by Jünger. Das
Waldmädchen, a character ballet in 1 act by Uhlich.6
[TJA, 1799, 12, 13]
Vienna
12, 14, 16 November . . .At the close, the comic ballet by Herr Trafieri: Das
Waldmädchen [Playbill; Hadamowsky; ADT3, 1799,
152]
Augsburg
2 December
5
(unreadable title), Lustspiel in 3 acts by Babo. Das
Waldmädchen, ballet in 1 act by Uhlich. [TJA, 1799, 20]
This was the touring company of Baron Johann von Stentzsch from Prague.
This was the former vaterländisches Theater from Prague, which was touring as
Steinsberg’s Karlsbaderdeutsche Schauspiel Gesellschaft. Their residency at Augsburg
continued until the end of 1799.
6
170
CITY/THEATER/DATE
5 December
Vienna
1799 4 December
1800
1, 20 February
Das Inkognito, oder: Der König auf Reisen, an original
Lustspiel in 4 acts by J. W. Ziegler. By popular
demand: Das Waldmädchen, ballet
in 1 act by Uhlich.
[TJA, 1799, 21]
Waldmädchen [Playbill; Hadamowsky; ADT3, 1799,
130]
(as above)7
28 March
(as above)
16,24 April
3 and 24 June
17 July
5 and 26 Sept.
7 and 12 Oct.
11 and 31 Dec.
(as above)
(as above)
(as above)
(as above)
(as above)
(as above)
1801 12, 22 March
30 April 12
25, 30 May
6 June
4 July
16 August
13 September
(as above)
(as above)
(as above)
(as above)
(as above)
(as above)
(as above)
A notice in the Allgemeine deutsche Theaterzeitung states that on 2 February 1800
the opera Die edle Rache and the ballet Das Waldmädchen were performed at Vienna’s
Kärntnerthortheater. Although such a performance may have occurred, no Viennese
sources support this claim. Allgemeine deutsche Theaterzeitung, Jahrgang 3 (1799) No. 2
(Brünn: Mährischen Lehnbank, 1800), 20.
7
171
CITY/THEATER/DATE
Prague
1801 19 September
Le donne cambiate, oder die verwechselten Weiber. Opera
in 1 act by Kapellmeister Päer; and Das Waldmädchen,
ballet. [BW, 12, 216]
5 October
Die verwechselten Weiber. Singspiel by Päer. Das
Waldmädchen, Schautanz by Brunetti. [BW, 14, last
page]
11 October
Die drei Töchter . Lustspiel by Spieß. Das Waldmädchen,
Schautanz by Brunetti. [BW, 15, last page].
14 October
Die verwechselten Weiber. Singspiel. Das Waldmädchen.
[BW, 15, last page].
Vienna
18 October
. . . At the close, the comic ballet by Hr. Trafieri: Das
Prague
9 November
Die verechselten Weiber . Wälsches Singspiel.8 Das
Waldmädchen, Schautanz. BW, 19, 328].
17 November
Der seltene Mann. Handschriftl. Lustspiel by Ziegler.
Das Waldmädchen, Schautanz by Brunetti. Herr Heiß is
in demand and will have danced today one time
already. [BW, 20, 344]
17 Dec ember
Der seltene Freier, Lustspiel. Das Waldmädchen,
Schautanz [BW, 24, 408]
The meaning of the German word wälsch is “foreign.” Teuber uses it frequently
when referring to the German company at the Nostitz/Estates Theater in Prague, when
its Czech-born members are the subject of his discourse. It appears to his designation of
the Czech-born actors who earned their living with German theater companies in
Prague.
8
172
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary sources and facsimiles—Music
Wranitzky, Paul. S. M. 11009. [Violin 1 part to Das Waldmädchen.]
Musiksammlung, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.
_____. S. M. 11374. [“Polonaise” from Das Waldmädchen. ] Musiksammlung,
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.
_____. XVI A 165 [Piano transcription of Das Waldmädchen.] Národni muzeum v Praze
Muzeum ceské hudby.
_____. XXVIII A 277 [Das Waldmädchen arranged for two oboes, two clarinets, two
horns, and two bassoons.] Národni muzeum v Praze Muzeum ceské hudby.
_____. XXVII C 15 [Manuscript piano arrangement of “Der Jagd,” from the ballet Das
Waldmädchen. ] Národni muzeum v Praze Muzeum ceské hudby.
_____. XXVII C 39 [Groteski fürs Klavier aus der Ballet Das Waldmädchen] Národni
muzeum v Praze Muzeum ceské hudby.
_____. XLI D 210 [Piano transcription of score to Das Waldmädchen.] Národni muzeum
v Praze Muzeum ceské hudby.
_____. XLI D 322 [Das Waldmädchen arranged for two oboes, two clarinets, two horns,
and two bassoons.] Národni muzeum v Praze Muzeum ceské hudby.
_____. XLII E 110 [“Pas de Deux” from Das Waldmädchen arranged for Clavi-Cembalo.]
Národni muzeum v Praze Muzeum ceské hudby.
Weber, Carl Maria von. Mus. Ms. autogr. C.M. v. Weber WFN 5 (3). [Fragments from
Das stumme Waldmädchen or Das Mädchen im Spessartwald.] Staatsbibliothek
zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz.
174
_____. RF-Sprob, Sign. I, 1. W.373. [Full score and orchestra parts to Das
Waldmädchen.] Gosudarstvenny akademichesky Mariinsky teatr Central’naya
muzykalnaya biblioteka.
Primary sources and facsimiles—Biographical and Historical
Müller, Wenzel. Sign. 51926. [Tagebuch über das Theater in Der Leopoldstadt (1781–
1830)]. Stadts- und Landsbibliothek, Vienna.
Nordisches Archiv. Volume 2. St. Petersburg (1804): 62. [Announcement of a
performance of Das Waldmädchen at St. Petersburg’s Kušelevschen House as
part of a benefit performance for singer Johann Hübsch in February 1801.]
Schönfeld, Johann Ferdinand, Ritter von. Jahrbuch der Tonkunst von Wien und Prag
Vienna: Schönfeld, 1796.
Steinsberg, Karl Guolfinger, Ritter von. Der 42jährige Affe: ein ganz vermaledeites
Märchen. Prague: Schönfeld, 1783; Reprint, Berlin, n. p., 1784.
_____. Vollständiger Prozess und Vertheidigung . Amsterdam . (False, probably
Nuremberg), n. p., 1783.
_____. Offenbarungen über Deutschland. Amsterdam. (False, probably Prague:
Schönfeld), 1784.
Weber, Carl Maria von. Mus ep. C. M. v. Weber 8 and 9. [Weber’s letters to Kalcher,
1797, 1798.]
_____. Tagebücher. Mus. ms. autogr. theor. C. M. von Weber WFN I. [Weber’s diaries from
1810 to 1826.] Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz.
_____. Mus. 276.3 (Fot.). [photocopy of Weber’s diaries, 1810–1826.] Staatsbibliothek
zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz.
Weberiana V. 5, D. 128 [Chemnitz Playbill.] 5 December 1800. Staatsbibliothek zu BerlinPreußischer Kulturbesitz.
Weberiana V, 5. D. 129. [Theater in der Leopoldstadt Playbill.] Staatsbibliothek zu
Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz. 773.042-D, Hoftheaterzettel. 23 September 1796.
Theatersammlung, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.
177
Zapf, Franz. [Typescript transcription of Mus. ms. autogr. theor. C. M. von Weber
WFN I]. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz.
Editions—Music
Weber, Carl Maria von. Carl Maria von Weber: Musikalische Werke, erste kritische
Gesamtausgabe. Edited by Hans Joachim Moser. Augsburg: B. Filser, 1926;
reprint, New York: Broude International, 1977.
Editions—Writings
Knebel, Konrad. “Carl Maria von Weber in Freiburg: 1800–1801.” In Mitteilungen vom
Freiburger Altertumsvereins 37 (1900), 72–89.
Pasqué, Ernst. Goethe’s Theaterleitung in Weimar. Leipzig: J. J. Weber, 1863.
Weber, Carl Maria von. “Aus dem Berliner Freundeskreis.” In Carl Maria von Weber:
Eine Gedenkschrift, ed. Günther Hausswald, 52–99. Dresden: V.V.V. Dresdener
Verlag, 1951.
_____. Briefe. Edited by Hans Christoph Worbs. Frankfurt: Fischer Taschenbuch, 1982.
_____. Briefe an den Grafen Karl von Brühl . Edited by Georg Felix Kaiser. Leipzig:
Breitkopf & Härtel, 1911.
_____. Briefe von Carl Maria von Weber an Hinrich Lichtenstein. Edited by Ernst
Rudorff. Braunschweig: G. Westermann, 1900.
_____. Kunstansichten: Ausgewählte Schriften. Edited by Karl Laux. Leipzig: Reclam,
1969; reprint, 1975.
_____. Sämtliche Schriften von Carl Maria von Weber: Kritische Ausgabe von Georg
Kaiser. Edited by Georg Felix Kaiser. Berlin/Leipzig: Schuster & Löffler, 1908.
_____. Writings on Music. Translated by Martin Cooper. Edited by John Warrack.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
178
Periodicals and Theater Calendars
Allgemeine deutsche Theaterzeitung. Jahrgang 3 (1799). No. 2. Brünn: Mährischen
Lehnbank, 1800.
Dahlstedt, A. L. Theater-Journal derjenigen Schauspiele und Opern, welche in
Augsburg von der Karl Ritter von Steinsbergischen Gesellschaft deutscher
Schauspieler vom 12. September bis 31. December 1799 ausgeführt wurden.
Augsburg: n. p., 1800.
Der böhmische Wandersmann. Nos. 12, 14 , 19, and 20. Prague, 1801.
Theater und Litteratur 9 (14 June 1798). Prague.
Catalogs
Bartlitz, Eveline, ed. Carl Maria von Weber: Autographenverzeichnis. Deutsche
Staatsbibliothek Handschrifteninventare 9. With an Introduction by Hans-Erich
Teitge. Berlin: Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, 1986.
Dünnebeil, Hans, ed. Carl Maria von Weber: Ein Brevier. Berlin: AFAS -Musikverlag,
1949.
_____. Carl Maria von Weber, Leben und Werke, dargestellt in chronologischer
Tafel: Mit vergleichenden Daten aus Musik-, Kunst-, Kultur-, und-Weltgeschichte.
Berlin: AFAS -Musikverlag, 1953.
_____. Schrifttum über Carl Maria von Weber mit Schallplattenverzeichnis. Fourth
edition. Berlin: Bote & Bock, 1942; reprint, Berlin: Bote & Bock, 1957.
Goldhan, Wolfgang. “Die Weberiana-Sammlung der Musik –Abteilung der Deutschen.
Staatsbibliothek Berlin/DDR.” In Carl Maria von Weber Tage der DDR 1986
Berlin/Dresden. Edited by Gerhard Gommlich, 12–14. Dresden: DEWAG, 1986.
Hadamowsky, Franz. Die Wiener Hoftheater (Staatstheater) 1776–1966: Verzeichnis der
aufgeführten Stücke mit Bestandsnachweis und täglichen Spielplan. 2 volumes.
Vienna: Prachner, 1966.
_____. “Das Theater in der Wiener Leopoldstadt 1781–1860.” In Katalog der
Theatersammlung der Nationalbibliothek in Wien. 4 vols. Vienna: O. Höfel,
1928.
179
Henderson, Donald, and Alice H. Henderson. Carl Maria von Weber: A Guide to
Research . Garland Composer Resource Manuals 24. New York: Garland, 1990.
Jähns, Friedrich Wilhelm. Carl Maria von Weber in seinen Werken: Chronologischthematisches Verzeichnis seiner sämmtlichen Compositionen. Berlin:
Schlesinger, 1871; reprint, Berlin-Lichterfelde: Lienau, 1967.
_____. Carl Maria von Weber, Werk und Wirkung im 19. Jahrhundert: Ausstellung der
Schleswig-Holsteinischen Landesbibliothek . Kiel: Schleswig-Holsteinische
Landesbibliothek, 1986.
_____. Verzeichniss von Weber’s Briefen 1810–1826. Manuscript notebook in
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin–Preußischer Kulturbesitz.
_____. Weberiana . Manuscript catalog in Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin–
PreußischerKulturbesitz.
Laíske, Miroslav. Pražská dramaturgie. Ceská divadelní Predstavení v Praze do
otevrení Prozatímního divadla DÍl [1] 1762 /?/ –1843 . Prague: Ústav pro Ceskou a
Svetovou Literaturu Csav, 1974.
Weber Studies—Biographical
Abraham, G. “Weber as Novelist and Critic.” The Musical Quarterly 20 (1934): 27–38.
Reprinted in Slavonic and Romantic Music, 239–50. New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 1968.
Bartlitz, Eveline. “Eine vergessene Freundschaft.” In Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 29/1
(1987): 69–73.
Brown, Clive. “Weber, Carl Maria (Friedrich Ernst) von.” In Grove Music Online , ed. L.
Macy. Accessed 30 May 2002. http://www.grovemusic.com.
Döring, Heinrich. “Carl von Webers Biographie und Charakteristik.” In Compositionen
von Carl Maria von Weber: Erste Rechtmässige Gesamtausgabe, ed. H. W.
Stolze. 2 vols. Wolfenbüttel: L. Holle, 1857. 1:1–26.
Geiser, S. “Goethe und die Mutter Carl Maria von Webers: Erstveroffentlichung eines
Theatervertrags zwischen dem Weimarischen Theater und Genovefa von Weber
(1794), nach dem Handschrift Goethes.” In Schweizerische Musikzeitung 97/5 (May
1957): 177–180.
180
Hamann, Heinz Wolfgang. “Eine Eingabe Karl Maria von Webers an die Salzburger
Theaterhofkommission.” Die Musikforschüng 15 (1962), 173–75.
Härtwig, Dieter. “Carl Maria von Weber und Dresden.” In Carl Maria von Weber Tage
der DDR 1986 Berlin/Dresden. Edited by Gerhard Gommlich, 34–40. Dresden:
DEWAG, 1986.
Hausswald, Günther, ed. Carl Maria von Weber: Eine Gedenkschrift. Dresden: V.V.V.
Dresdener Verlag, 1951.
Herzfeld, Friedrich. “Die Tagebücher Carl Maria von Webers.” Allgemeine
Musikzeitung 63 (1936), 785–86.
Höcker, Karla. Oberons Horn: Das Leben von Carl Maria von Weber. Berlin: Erika
Klopp, 1986.
Hoffmann, Hans. Carl Maria von Weber: Biographie eines realistischen Romantikers.
Düsseldorf: Droste, 1986.
Hsu, Dolores M enstell. “Weber on Opera: A Challenge to Eighteenth-Century
Tradition.” In Studies in Eighteenth-Century Music: A Tribute to Karl Geiringer
on his Seventieth Birthday, ed. H.C. Robbins Landon and Roger Chapman,
297–309. London: Allen and Unwin, 1970.
Kaiser, Georg Felix, ed. Beiträge zu einer Charakteristik Carl Maria von Webers als
Musikschriftsteller. Leipzig: G. Kreysing, 1910.
Kapp, Julius. Carl Maria von Weber: Eine Biographie. Berlin: M. Hesses, 1944.
Laux, Karl. Carl Maria von Weber. Leipzig: VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1978.
_____. “Carl Maria von Webers Münchner Beitrag zur deutschen Oper.” In Festschrift
Karl Engel zum siebzigsten Geburtstag, ed. Horst Heussner, 221–30. Kassel:
Bärenreiter, 1964.
Moser, Hans Joachim. Carl Maria von Weber: Leben und Werk. Second edition.
Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1955.
Schneiter, Philipp. “Carl Maria von Weber und seine Beziehungen zu Darmstadt.” In
Darmstädter Musikleben im 19. Jahrhundert, 65–73. Darmstadt: Liebig, 1975.
Schnoor, Hans. “Carl Maria von Weber.” In Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart,
ed. Friedrich Blume, 14: 285–296. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1949–68.
181
_____. Weber: Gestalt und Schöpfung. Dresden: VEB Deutscher Verlag der Kunst,
1953.
Schünemann, Georg. “Carl Maria von Weber in Berlin: sein erster Besuch im Jahre
1812.” In Deutscher Tonkunst: Festschrift zu Peter Raabes 70. Geburtstag, 78–94.
Leipzig: Peters, 1942.
Stebbins, Lucy Poate, and Richard Poate Stebbins. Enchanted Wanderer: The Life of
Carl Maria von Weber. New York: Putnam, 1940.
Tusa, Michael C. “Carl Maria (Friedrich Ernst) von Weber.” In The New Grove Dictionary
of Music and Musicians. 27: 135–72. 2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie. London:
Macmillan, 2001.
Veit, Joachim. “Studien zum Frühwerk Carl Maria von Webers: Untersuchungen zum
Einfluss Abbé Voglers und Franz Danzis.” Ph.D. dissertation, Universität
Gesamthochschule Paderborn, 1987.
_____. “Quellen zur Biographie des jungen Weber (bis etwa 1815): Anmerkungen zum
Forschungsstand.” Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 30/1 (1988), 68–71.
Walter, Friedrich. “Karl Maria von Weber in Mannheim und Heidelberg 1810 und sein
Freundeskreis.” Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter 25 (February 1924), col. 18–
73.
Warrack, John. Carl Maria von Weber . London: Macmillan, 1968.
_____. “Carl Maria von Weber and his Diaries.” In Slavonic and Western Music.
Essays for Gerald Abraham, ed. M alcolm Hamrick Brown and Roland John
Wiley, 131–38. Ann Arbor, Mich: UMI Research Press, 1985.
_____. “Carl Maria von Web er.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,
ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 1980. 20: 241–66.
Weber, Max Maria von. Carl Maria von Weber: Ein Lebensbild . Leipzig: E. Keil, 1864.
Wurzbach, Constant von. “Weber, Carl Maria von.” In Biographisches Lexikon des
Kaiserthums Österreich , 60 vols. Vienna: K. K. Hof-und Staatsdruckerei, 1879.
53: 202–10.
182
Other Biographical Studies
Angermüller, Rudolf, and Teresa Hrdlick-Reichenberger. “Joseph Weigl (ii),” and
“Thaddäus Weigl.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed.,
ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 2001. 27: 215–17. Available online in
Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed 31 July 2004.
Baumann, Thomas, and Zdenka Pilkova. “Georg (Anton [Jiri Antonín] Benda.” In The
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie. London:
Macmillan, 2001. 3: 227–29.
Baumann, Thomas. “Bretzner, Christoph Friedrich.” In The New Grove Dictionary of
Opera , ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 1992. 1: 600.
Branscombe, Peter. “Bondini, Pasquale.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians. 2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 2001. 3: 852–532.
_____. “Gerl, Franz Xaver.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
_____. “Haibel [Haibl, Heibel[, (Johann Petrus) Jakob [Jacob].” In The New
Grove Dictionary of Opera , ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 1992. 2: 596.
_____. “Henneberg, Johann Baptist.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians. 2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 2001. 1: 375.
_____. “Kauer, Ferdinand.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd
ed., ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 2001. 13: 415–17.
_____. “Mederitsch (-Gallus), Johann (Georg Anton).” In The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians. 2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 2001. 16:
217–18.
_____. “Ruprecht, (Josef) Martin.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 2001. 21: 894–95.
_____. “Schack, Benedikt (Emmanuel).” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
_____. “Schenk, Johann Baptist.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
183
_____. “Seyfried, Ignaz (Xaver), Ritter von.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
_____. “Stegmayer, Matthäus.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
_____. “Umlauf [Umlauff], Ignaz.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
Buelow, George J. “Paul Ignaz Kürzinger.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Charlton, David, and M. Elizabeth Bartlet. “Grétry, André-Ernest-Modeste.” In The New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie. London:
Macmillan, 2001. 10: 385–95.
Corneilson, Paul, and Peter M. Alexander. “Danzi, Franz (Ignaz).’ In The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie. London:
Macmillan, 2001. 7: 4–6.
Costenoble, C. L. Tagebücher von seiner Jugend bis zur Übersiedlung nach Wien. 2 vols.
Berlin: Gesellschaft für Theatergeschichte, 1912.
Eisenberg, Ludwig. Grosses Biographisches Lexikon der Deutschen Bühne im XIX
Jahrhundert. Leipzig: Paul List, 1903.
Futter, Edith. Die bedeutendsten Schauspielerinnen des Leopoldstädter Theaters in der Zeit von
1800 bis 1830. Vienna: Notring, 1970.
Giebisch, Hans, and Gustav Gugitz. Bio-Bibliographisches Literaturlexikon Österreichs von
den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Vienna: Brüder Hollinek, 1964.
Grave, Margaret, and Jay Lane. “Dittersdorf, Carl Ditters von.” In The New Grove
Macmillan, 2001. 7: 385–91.
Hayes, Jeremy, Bruce Alan Brown, Max Loppert, and Winton Dean. “Gluck, Christoph
Willibald Ritter von.” In Grove Music Online , ed. L. Macy. Accessed 3
April 2005. http://www.grovemusic.com .
Hoffman-Erbrecht, Lothar. “Kalcher (Kalchner), Johann Nepomuk.” In Die Musik in
Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. Friedrich Blume. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1958. 7: 436.
184
Ladenburger, Michael. “Knecht, Justin Heinrich.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians. 2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 2001. 13: 690–91.
Layer, Adolf, and Fiona Little. “Beecke, (Notger) Ignaz (Franz) von.” In The New Grove
Macmillan, 2001. 3: 67–69.
Louda, Jirí, and Michael MacLagan. Lines of Succession: Heraldry of the Royal Families of
Europe . 2nd ed. London: Little, Brown and Company, 1999.
Maier, Gunter. “Zumsteeg [Aum Steeg], Johann Rudolf.” In The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians. 2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 2001. 27:
883–85.
McCredie, Andrew D. “Stegmann, Carl David.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians. 2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 2001. 24: 323–24.
Plath, Wolfgang. “Johann [Jean] André.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Poštolka, Milan. “Partsch [Bartsch, Parc], Franz [Frantisek] Xaver.” In The New Grove
Macmillan, 2001. 19: 176.
_____. “Volanek [Wolanek, Wollaneck, Wollanek], Antonin (Josef Alois) [Anton].” In
The New Grove Dictiona ry of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie.
London: Macmillan, 2001. 26: 878.
Poštolka, Milan, and Robert Hickman. ”Wranitzky [Vranický, Wraniczky, Wranizky],
Paul [Pavel].” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed., ed.
Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 2001. 27: 575–77.
_____. ”Wranitzky [Vranický, Wraniczky, Wranizky], Paul [Pavel].” In Grove Music
Online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed 31 July 2004. http://www.grovemusic.com .
Rassmann, Friedrich. Pantheon deutscher jeßt lebender Dichter und in die Belletristik
eingreifender Schriftsteller : begleitet mit kurzen biographischen Notizen und der
wichtigsten Literatur. Helmstedt: C. G. Fleckeisensch, 1823.
Rönnau, Klaus. “Hanke [Hancke], Karl.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
185
_____. “Spindler, (Franz) Stanislaus.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
_____ , and Thomas Bauman. “Kaffka [Engelmann], Johann Christoph.” In The
Macmillan, 2001. 13: 307–08.
Scherl, Adolf. “Guolfinger von Steinsberg, Karl Franz.” In Národní Divadlo a jeho
predchudci: Slovník um elcu divadel Vlastenského, Stavovského, Prozatímního, a
Národního, ed. Vladimír Procházka, 126–27. Prague: Ceskoslovenská Akademie
Ved, 1988.
Schmid, H. “Valesi [Vallesi], Giovanni {Walleshauser, Johann Evangelist].” In The New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. London:
Macmillan, 1980. 19:500–01.
Teuber, Oscar. Geschichte des Prager Theaters: von den Anfängen des Schauspielwesens bis
auf die neueste Zeit. 3 vols. Prague: A. Haase, 1883–88.
Tomaschek, Wenzel Johann. “Selbstbiographie.” Jahrbuch für Libussa 4 (1845), 383–
91; 5 (1846), 321–27.
Tyler, Linda, and Caryl L. Clark. “Süssmayr [Süssmayer], Franz Xaver [Dolcevillico,
Francesco Saverio].” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed.,
ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 2001. 24: 734–36.
Unverricht, Hubert. “Kerpen, Freiherr Hugo Franz Karl Alexander von [Hugo
Friedrich].” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed., ed.
Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 2001. 13: 499.
_____. “Kospoth, Otto Carl Erdmann.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Van Der Straeten, E., and John Warrack. “Graetz [Grätz, Graz], Joseph.” In The New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. London:
Macmillan, 1980. 7: 610.
Veit, Joachim. “Weber, (Franz) Edmund (Kaspar Johann Nepomuk Joseph Maria).” In
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie.
London: Macmillan, 2001. 27: 134.
_____. “Weber, Franz Anton.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 2001. 27: 135.
186
_____. “Weber, Fridolin (Stephan Johann Nepomuk Andreas Maria) [Fritz] (ii).” In Grove
Music Online , ed. L. Macy. Accessed 6 January 2003.
Volek, Tomislav. “Guardasoni, Domenico.” In Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy.
Accessed 15 October 2004. http://www.grovemusic.com .
Warrack, John, and Joachim Veit. “Heuschkel, Johann Peter.” In The New Grove
Macmillan, 2001. 11: 469.
Warrack, John. “Kalcher [Kalchner], Johann Nepomuk.” In The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 1980. 9: 774.
White, Chappell. “Giornovichi, Giovanni [Jarnovic, Jarnovicki, Jarnowick; Ivan] Mane.”
In Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed 31 July 2004.
Würtz, Roland. “Ferdinand Fränzl.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music a nd Musicians.
2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 2001. 9: 213.
_____, Valerie Walden, and Robert Münster. “Peter Ritter.” In The
Macmillan, 2001. 21: 449–50.
Wurzbach, Constant von. “Steinsberg, Karl Guolfinger von.” In Biographisches Lexikon
des Kaiserthums Österreich . 60 vols. Vienna: K. K. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, 1879.
38: 152–59.
Weber Studies–Works
Ditzler, Kirk. “The Motif of the Forest in Weber's Silvana and Der Freischuetz.” In The
Opera Journal 31 (1998): 35–49.
Gorer, R. “Weber and the Romantic Movement.” Music and Letters 17/1 (1936): 13–24.
Gubkina, Natalia. “Carl Maria von Weber’s Waldmädchen: Ein wiedergefundenes
Jugendwerk.” Die Musikforschüng 53 (2000): 57–59.
_____. “Das Waldmädchen von Carl Maria von Weber: Notizen zum Petersburger
Aufführungsmaterial.” Trans. Dagmar Beck. Weberiana 11 (2001):
32–51.
187
Sacher, Jack. “The Vocal and Choral Music of Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826).”
Ph.D. dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1965.
Schnoor, Hans. “Weber, München und die Freischütz-Romantik.” Blätter der
Bayerischen Staatsoper 6/21 (1953–54): 20–25.
Tusa, Michael C. Euryanthe and Carl Maria von Weber’s Dramaturgy of German
Opera. Oxford: Clarendon, 1991.
_____. “Weber’s Große Oper: A Note on the Origins of Euryanthe.” 19 th-Century Music
8/2 (Autumn 1984), 199–24.
Viertel, Matthias S. “Zur Wirkungsgeschichte des Freischütz im 19. Jahrhundert.” In
Carl Maria von Weber: Werk und Wirkung im 19. Jahrhundert, ed. Dieter Lohmeier,
51–62. Kiel: Landesbibliothek, 1986.
Warrack, John. “Französische Elemente in Webers Opern.” In Carl Maria von Weber:
Eine Gedenkschrift, ed. Günther Hausswald, 277–90. Dresden: V.V.V.
Dresdener Verlag, 1951.
Wehnert, Martin. “Die Romanfragmente zum Tonkünstlers Leben als Quelle
ästhetischer Anschauungen Carl Maria von Webers.” Beiträge zur
Musikwissenschaft 29/3 (1987): 227–39.
Opera/Ballet/Theater Studies
Bailey, Robert. “Visual and Musical Symbolism in German Romantic Opera.” In
International Musicological Society Report of the Twelfth Congress Berkeley
1977 , ed. Daniel Heartz and Bonnie Wade, 440–43. Philadelphia: The
American Musicological Society, 1981.
Bauman, Thomas. North German Opera in the Age of Goethe. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1985.
Becker, Heinz. “Die Couleur locale als Stilkategorie der Oper.” In Die Couleur locale
in der Oper des 19. Jahrhunderts, S tudien zur Musikgeschichte des 19.
Jahrhunderts 42, ed. Heinz Becker, 23–46. Regensburg: Gustav Bosse,
1976.
Branscombe, Peter. “Pantomime.” Grove Music Online , ed. L. Macy. Accessed
19 August 2003. http://www.grovemusic.com .
188
Charlton, David. The Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera . Cambridge: Cambridge
Coleman, Arthur Prudden. Kotzebue and the Czech Stage. Schenectady, NY: Electric City
Press, 1936.
Dahlhaus, Carl. “Die Kategorie des Charakteristischen in der Ästhetik des 19.
Jahrhunderts.” In Die Couleur locale in der Oper des 19. Jahrhunderts. Studien zur
Musikgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts 42, ed. Heinz Becker, 9–21.
Regensburg: Gustav Bosse, 1976.
Dent, Edward J. The Rise of Romantic Opera . Edited by Winton Dean. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Doerner, Mark Frederick. “The Influence of the Kunstmärchen on German Romantic
Opera, 1814–1825.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles,
1990.
_____. “German Romantic Opera? A Critical Reappraisal of Undine and Der
Freischütz.” Opera Quarterly 10 (1994): 10–26.
Engländer, Richard. “The Struggle between German and Italian Opera at the Time of
Weber.” The Musical Quarterly 31 (1945): 479–91.
Fitzpatrick, Horace, and Peter Downey. “Jagdmusik.” Grove Music Online , ed. L. Macy.
Accessed 20 March 2005. http://www.grovemusic.com.
Glossy, Karl. Zur Geschichte der Theater Wiens. Vienna: C. Konegen, 1915.
Griffel, Margaret A. Operas in German: A Dictionary. New York: Greenwood, 1990.
Gubkina, Natalia. Nemeckij muzykal’nyi teatr v St.-Peterburge v perwoj treti XIX veka.
St. Petersburg: Dmitri Bulanin, 2003.
_____. “Deutsches Musiktheater in St. Petersburg am Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts.”
Musikgeschichte in Mittel - und Osteuropa Mitteilungen der internationalen
Arbeigsgemeinschaft an der Technischen Universität Chemnitz, ed. Helmut
Loos and Eberhard Moller, 4: 95–116. Chemnitz, Schröder, 1999.
Hermann, Walter. “Geschichte der Schauspielkunst in Freiberg.” Schriften für
Theaterwissenschaft, 2: 489–744. Berlin: n. p., 1960.
189
Holden, Amanda, Nicholas Kenyon, and Stephen Walsh, eds. The Viking Opera Guide.
London: Penguin Group, 1993.
Jakubcová, Alena, Jitka Ludvová, and Václav Maidl, eds. Deutschsprachiges Theater in
Prag: Begegnungen der Sprachen und Kulturen. Prague: Divadelní ústav, 2001.
Kirby, F. E. “Herder and Opera.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 15
(1962): 316–26.
Kotzebue, August von. Der Taubstumme. Leipzig: n. p., 1800.
Kramer, Jörg. Deutschesprachiges Musiktheater im späten 18. Jahrhundert. Typologie,
Dramaturgie, und Anthropologie einer populären Gattung . Volumes 1 and 2 in
Studien der deutschen Literatur. Tübingen: Niemayer, 1998.
Link, Dorothea. The National Court Theatre in Mozart’s Vienna: Sources and
Documents 1783–1792. Oxford: Clarendon, 1998.
Loewenberg, Alfred. Annals of Opera, 1597–1940, Compiled f rom the Original Sources.
3rd edition. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1978.
Manning, Elizabeth. “The Politics of Culture: Joseph II’s German Opera.” History
Today 43/1 (1993): 15–22.
Meyer, Reinhart. “Der Anteil des Singspiels und der Oper am Repertoire der deutschen
Bühnen in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhundert.” Proceedings of the
Colloquium der Arbeitsstelle 18. Jahrhundert, Gesampthochschule Wuppertal.
Universität Münster, Amorbach, 1979. 27–76. Heidelberg: Carl Winter
Universitätsverlag, 1981.
Meyer, Stephen Conrad. “Performing Identity: The Search for a German Opera in
Dresden, 1798–1832.” Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York at Stony
Brook, 1996.
_____. Carl Maria von Weber and the Search for a German Opera. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 2003.
Mundt, Theodor. “Über Oper, Drama, und Melodrama in ihrem Verhältnis zu einander
und zum Theater.” Blätter für literarische Unterhaltung 152–55 (June 1831):
665–79.
Parsons, Charles H., comp. The Mellen Opera Reference Index. 21 Volumes. Lewiston,
NY: Edwin Mellen, 1986–99.
190
Peter, Ilka. Der Salzburger Fackeltanz: zur Geschichte eines Tanzes. Salzburg:
Salzburger Druckerei, 1979.
Procházka, Vladimir, Zoltán Rampák and František Mužík, eds. Národní Divadlo a Jeho
Predchudci: Slovník umelcu divadel Vlastenského, Stavovského, Prozatímního, a
Národního. Prague: Academia Praha, 1988.
Reiber, Kurt. Volk und Oper: Das Volkstümliche in der deutsche romantischen Oper.
Wurzburg: Triltsch, 1942.
Rommel, Otto. Die Alt-Wiener Volkskomödie. Ihre Geschichte von baroken Welt-Theater bis
zum Tode Nestroys. Vienna, A. Schroll, 1952.
Schink, Johann Friedrich. Gallerie von Teutschen Schauspielern und Schuspielerinnen nebst
Johann Friedrich Schinks Zusätzen und Berichtigungen. Volume 13 of Schriften der
Gesellschaft für Theatergeschichte. Berlin: Gesellschaft für Theatergeschichte, 1910.
St. Laurent, Marissa Anne Solomon. “The Life and Operatic Works of a ‘Divine
Philistine’: Paul Wranitzky.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los
Angeles, 2000.
Tieck, Ludwig. Ludwig Tieck’s Schriften. 28 vols. Berlin: G. Reiner, 1828–1854.
Tyrell, John. Czech Opera. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Wahnrau, Gerhard. Berlin, Stadt der Theater. Berlin: Henschelverlag, 1957.
Warrack, John. “German Operatic Ambitions at the Beginning of the Nineteenth
Century.” Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association 64 (1977–78): 79–88.
Vondrácek, Jan. Prehledné Dejiny Ceského Divadla. Nusle: Svoboda, 1926.
Yates, W. E. Theatre in Vienna: A Critical History, 1776–1995. Cambridge: Cambridge
Zelzer, Hugo. “German Opera from Mozart to Weber.” In Of German Music: A
Symposium , ed. Hans-Hubert Schönzeler, 124–52. London: Oswald Wolff,
1976.
191
Historical/Cultural Studies—Feral Children
Anonymous. The Annual Register, or a View of the History, Politics, and Literature, for the
Years 1784 and 1785. London: G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1785. Available online in
Eighteenth Century Collections Online . Gale Group.
http:galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/ECCO. Accessed 18 November 2004.
_____. “The Savage.” In Miscellaneous Poems by Several Hands, comp. and ed. D. Lewis.
London: J. Watts, 1726.
Arbuthnot, John, and Jonathan Swift. It cannot rain but it pours: or, London strow’d with
rarities. Being, an account of . . . And lastly, of the wonderful wild man that was nursed
in the woods of Germany by a wild beast, hunted and taken in toyls . . . being call’d
Peter; and how he was brought to Court. London: J. Roberts, 1726.
Burnet, James, Lord Monboddo. Antient metaphysics. Edinburgh: J. Balfour, 1779.
Reprinted New York: Garland, 1977.
Candland, D. K. Feral Children and Clever Animals: Reflections on Human Nature. London:
Oxford University Press, 1993.
Condillac, Etienne Bonnot de Mably de. An essay on the origin of human knowledge. Being
a supplement to Mr. Locke’s essay on the human understanding. [Essai sur l’origine des
connaissances humaines: ouvrage où l'on réduit à un seul principe tout ce qui concerne
l'entendement humain] Translated by Thomas Nugent. London: J. Nourse, 1756.
Available online in Eighteenth Century Collections Online . Gale Group.
http:galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/ECCO. Accessed 31 October 2004.
_____. Essai sur l’origine des connaissances humaines: ouvrage où l'on réduit à un seul principe
tout ce qui concerne l'entendement humain. Amsterdam : Pierre Mortier, 1746.
_____. “Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge.” In Cambridge Texts on the History of
Philosophy , ed. Hans Aarsleff, 88–89. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2001.
Connor, Bernard, and John Savage. The History of Poland : in several letters to persons of
quality. Giving an account of the present state of that Kingdom, historical, political,
physical, and ecclesiastical. London: D. Brown, A. Roper, and T. Leigh, 1698.
DaFoe, Daniel. Mere Nature Delineated: or, a Body without a Soul. Being Observations
upon the Young Forester Lately brought to Town from Germany. With suitable
applications. Also, a brief dissertation upon the usefulness and necessity of
fools, whether political or nature . London: T. Warner, 1726.
192
Ducray-Duminil, François Guil. Alexis: ou, La maisonnette dans le bois. Paris: Maradan,
1789.
_____. Coeline: ou, l’enfant du mystère. Paris: Le Prierus, 1798.
_____. Lolotte et Fanfan: ou, Les aventures de deux enfans abondonnés dans une isle déserte.
Paris: Maradan, 1788.
_____. Paul; oder, der verlassene Meierhof; vom verfasser des Victor, der Edlina u. s. w..
Leipzig: J. G. Beygang, 1803.
_____. Victor: ou, l’enfant de la forêt. Paris, Le Prieur, 1797.
Itard, Jean Marc Gaspard. De l’éducation d’un hoomme sauvage ou des premiers
développements physiques et moraux de jeune sauvage de l’Aveyron. Paris: Goujon,
1801.
_____. Rapport fait à son excellence le Ministre de l’intérieur sur les nouveaux développemens et
l’état actuel du sauvage de l’Aveyron. Paris: Imprimér ide impériale, 1806.
La Condamine, Charles-Marie, and Madame Hecquet. Histoire d’une jeune fille sauvage
trouvée dans les bois à l’âge de dix ans. Paris: n. p., 1755, 1761.
_____. The history of a savage girl , caught wild in the woods of Champagne.
[Translation of Histoire d’une jeune fille sauvage trouvée dans les bois à l’âge de dix
ans]. London: R. Dursley and T. Davidson, 1760. Reprint, Edinburgh: A. Kincaid
and J. Bell, 1768. Reprint, London: J. Wren and W. Hodges, 1784. Reprint,
Aberdeen: Burnett and Rettie, 1796. Reprint: Edinburgh: J. Morren, 1800.
Leroy, Julien David. “Mémoire sur les travaux qui ont rapport à l’exploitation de la
mature dans les Pyrénées.” In Des navires employés par les anciens, et de l’usage
qu’on en pourroit faire dans notre marine. Paris: n. p., 1774; reprint 1803.
Linné, Carl von. Caroli Linnæi ... Systema naturæ per regna tria naturae, secundum classes,
ordines, genera, species, cum charateribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis, etc. 10th
ed. Stockholm: Laurentii Salvii, 1758.
Newton, Michael. Savage Girls and Wild Boys. London: Faber and Faber, 2002.
Phillips, Richard. Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food as a Moral Duty. London: Richard
Phillips, 1802.
193
Porter, Roy. "Science, Provincial Culture, and Public Opinion." In British Journal for
Eighteenth-Century Studies 3 (1980): 20–46
Racine, Louis. “Écclaircissement: Sur la fille sauvage dont est parlé dans cette epître.”
In La Grace, poëme; par Monsieur Racine, De l’Académic Royale des Inscriptions &
Belles-Letters. Paris: Londres, 1785.
_____. “Epître II, sur l’homme, poësies nouvelles.” In Oeuvres. Paris: J. B.
Coignard, 1747. Reprint, Paris: Le Normant, 1808.
Shattuck, Roger. The Forbidden Experiment: The Story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron. New
York: Kondosha, 1980; reprint, 1994.
Swift, Jonathan (attr.). The most wonderful wonder that ever appear’d to the wonder of the
British Nation: Being an account of the travels of Mynheer Veteranus, thro’ the woods of
Germany; and an account of his taking a most monstrous she bear, who had nurs’d up
the wild boy, there landing at the tower. . . with a dialogue between the old she bear and
her foster son. Dublin: G. Faulkner, 1726.
Voltaire. “Poème sur la loi naturelle.” In La henriade: en dix chants, précédée, accompagnée,
& suivie de toutes les piéces rélatives à ce poëme & à la poësie epique en général
auxquelles on a joint, le Temple du gout les Discours sur l'homme, les Poëmes de
Fontenoy, sur le desastre de Lisbonne, sur la loi naturelle, &c. &c. Geneva: n. p., 1771.
Selected Historical/Cultural Studies—Romanticism and Music
Abrams, M. H. The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1953.
_____. Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature. New
York: W.W. Norton, 1971.
Applegate, Celia. “What is German Music? Reflections on the Role of Art in the
Creation of a Nation.” German Studies Review 15 (Winter 1992): 21–32.
Barraclough, Geoffrey. The Origins of Modern Germany . 2nd ed. London: Norton, 1984.
Berlin, Isaiah. The Roots of Romanticism . The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts.
The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., Bollingen Series xxxv: 45,
ed. Henry Hardy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
194
Clark, Robert T. Herder: His Life and Thought. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1969.
Dahlhaus, Carl. Nineteenth-Century Music. Translated by J. Bradford Robinson.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.
_____. Europäische Romantik in der Musik . Stuttgart: Metzler, 1999.
Daverio, John. Nineteenth-Century Music and the German Romantic Ideology . New
York: Schirmer, 1993.
Dieckmann, Liselotte. “Friedrich Schlegel and Romantic Concepts of the Symbol.”
The Germanic Review 34 (1959): 276–83.
Hertz, Frederick. The German Public Mind in the Nineteenth Century: A Social History
of German Political Sentiments, Aspirations, and Ideas. Edited by Franck Eyck,
translated by Eric Northcott. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1975.
Kamm, Robert. A History of the Hapsburg Empire, 1526–1918 . Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press, 1974.
Peckham, Morse. The Birth of Romanticism, 1790–1815. Vol. 1 of Romanticism and its
Consequences: Emergent Culture in the Nineteenth Century 1790–1912.
Greenwood, FL: Penkevill, 1986.
Plantinga, Leon. Romantic Music: A History of Musical Style in Nineteenth-Century
Europe . New York: W. W. Norton, 1984.
Randel, Don Michael, ed. The New Harvard Dictionary of Music. Cambridge, MA:
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986.
Ratner, Leonard G. Romantic Music: Sound and Syntax. New York: Schirmer, 1992.
Steblin, Rita. A History of Key Characteristics in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth
Centuries. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1983.
195
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Bama Elizabeth Lutes Deal was born in Florida in 1957, the second daughter of U. S.
Air Force M/Sgt. Albert William Lutes and Florence Louise (née Phillips) Lutes. She
attended public schools in California and Florida, studying music (piano and horn)
throughout her childhood.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music, a certificate in Horn Performance, a
Master of Music in Musicology, and a PhD in musicology, all from The Florida State
University. Deal served as the coordinator of FSU’s Society for Musicology in 1998-99
and has presented papers at meetings of the Southern Chapter of the American
Musicological Society and the CHT Lecture Series at the University of North Carolina—
Greensboro. Her research interests include Schubert Lieder, early German opera, and
Czech theater history. Since 2002 she has taught music appreciation courses at Wake
Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
An active orchestral and chamber musician for many years, she has performed
with the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, Miami City Ballet, Palm Beach Opera, the
Jacksonville Symphony, the Greater Palm Beach Symphony, the South Florida
Symphony, the Miami Chamber Orchestra, the Jupiter Theater, Ballet Florida, Brass
Alive! brass quintet, and Trio Cantabile (violin, horn, piano). Deal also taught horn at
Florida Atlantic University and Palm Beach Atlantic University for several years. Her
horn teachers include Reid Poole, David Glaser (Cleveland Orchestra), David Gray
(London Symphony Orchestra), William Capps (FSU), and Michelle Stebleton (FSU),
and she has also performed in master classes with Barry Tuckwell.
She has two grown children and resides in Greensboro, North Carolina, with her
husband, John J. Deal.
196

The Origin and Performance History of Carl Maria von

Transcrição

Documentos relacionados

Data sheet

Gedenkmünze, Challenge Coin, 415th BSB

Öffnen

RANJEET KUMAR DAS Director Road Research Laboratory

Ami Pro - TEST-3_3.SAM

Wuensche der Mediatoren an das Christkind

In Englisch verhandeln, ohne dass es zum Fiasko wird…

Radiohead, Bitter

Öffnen