Erwin and Elmire

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Data
Title: Erwin and Elmire
Genus: A play with singing
Original language: German
Author: Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Publishing year: 1775 and 1788 (1st and 2nd version)
Premiere: September 13, 1775
Place of premiere: Frankfurt am Main
Place and time of the action: "The scene is not in Spain" (1st version) or (2nd version) 1st elevator: "A garden with a view of country houses and summer houses" and 2nd elevator: "Woody and bushy wasteland, between rocks a hut with a garden "
people

1st version:

  • Olimpia
  • Elmire , her daughter
  • Bernardo
  • Erwin

2nd version:

  • Erwin
  • Elmire
  • pink
  • Valerio
Tischbein : Goethe 1787 in Rome

Erwin und Elmire is a Singspiel with the libretto by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . The first version was performed on September 13, 1775 in Frankfurt am Main with the Marchand troupe , the second on June 10, 1796 by Luise von Göchhausen in Weimar. Mozart set the poem Das Veilchen from the work on June 8, 1785 (KV 476).

A play with singing (1773–1775)

Goethe's garden house 1830
Look! how beautiful is the day;
Come on, let's go to the garden.
Look! the flowers are all blooming
Listen! it strikes the nightingale

sings Olimpia and wants to cheer up her daughter Elmire with the singing . Elmire is actually lucky, because her mother gives her a free hand in choosing a spouse: take whichever one you want of the six! Even more, Olimpia says, marriage is appropriate for Elmire, and if a woman has common sense she can go along with anything .

At first Elmire has excuses: I've always lived more for myself than for others. Olimpia knows better. Erwin is the one for Elmire. His skill, his hard work made up for the lack of his own fortune ... He is from a good family. Now the truth is breaking out of Elmire. It was her coldness that drove him away.

My pride broke his heart.

Elmire is furious and fears the worst. If he now left not only his mother, his friends , but perhaps the world - a terrible thought!

But the good old Bernardo , formerly Elmire's French language master, is a friend and confidante with his mother Olimpia . Olimpia and Bernardo want Elmire's happiness, want to bring Elmire back together with Erwin. Bernardo is now carrying out this plan. But first he hits Elmire's point.

Gone is gone
And dead is dead!

Bernardo is right, adds Elmire, and laments Erwin's absence. I tormented him, I made him unhappy ... I trampled his heart.

But Bernardo knows Elmire. She is basically good. Elmire has to object. Bernardo knows more. He recommends Elmire a confessor with a long white beard who lives as a hermit out in the woods and whom she should confide in. Elmire accepts the suggestion in her distress.

I have to, I have to see him
The godlike man!

Change of scene. Of course Erwin is that hermit. He pronounces the inner rooting : I see her here, she is always present in front of my soul and means Elmire. Bernardo comes and advises him to change. Erwin doesn't want to know anything about it. Bernardo calls:

Erwin! - She loves You.

The good old man has the right thing for Erwin's costume as a holy man in his luggage. And already Elmire strolls up the valley in utter embarrassment and sighs:

See me healer as I am
A poor sinner

and becomes concrete.

I heard his mute pleading
And I could see him eating.

Erwin soon grasps the situation and is jubilant:

Ha! she loves Me!
She loves Me!

He sends Elmire away, but only a little. Then he rushes after her and takes off the disguise. Elmire promises Erwin at the end of the game:

All of my future life
Dearest! I dedicate to you.

A Singspiel (1787)

Demoiselle Huber as Elmire. Drawing by Chodowiecki .

In 1786 Goethe wrote to his friend, the composer Philipp Christoph Kayser : “With Erwin and Elmire I intend to introduce a couple of young people instead of mother and Bernardo who live in a different way in love disagreement, that is, two intrigues that entwine and end both dissolve in the Einsiedeley. Nothing remains of the present but the most singable pieces that you could choose. "

But Kayser did not complete the commission.

First printing and setting

The first version was printed in the March 1775 issue of Iris magazine . The first edition of the 2nd version is contained in the 5th volume of Goethe's writings published in 1788 .

The Singspiel was set to music by:

1st version
2nd version

CD recordings were made of the settings by Duchess Anna Amalia, Johann Friedrich Reichardt and Othmar Schoeck. Some of these recordings are limited to the musical parts of the piece; the dialogue text was omitted or replaced by a summarizing narrative text.

Performances

  • Luise von Göchhausen wrote to Goethe at the beginning of June 1796: “Tomorrow evening we intend to play your operetta, Erwin and Elimire, in front of a small party at the closed doors. The Duchess knows nothing about it, and we hope to please her a little. Now comes the request! You may kindly allow us the theater, along with the associated 2 decorations and the lighting. Should the lighting cause difficulties, we would also like to understand how to create the lights. "
  • After the play had passed the Munich censorship in 1777, it appeared there in the Electoral Theater .

Testimonials

Goethe in 1828

“Write to me soon how you like it and how Erwin liked it. You always have to think that these pieces have to be played and sung, for reading, even for mere performance they could and should have been made much better. "

- Goethe's letter of May 1788 to Charlotte von Stein

“At the time I was busy working on my Operibus and tinkering with it. Erwin , Claudine, Lila, Jeri everything is fine. "

- Goethe's letter of February 16, 1788 from Rome to Duke Carl August

"Later read Claudine from Villa Bella and Erwin and Elmire ."

- Goethe's diary, entry from August 15, 1828

literature

source
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Poetic Works, Volume 3 . Phaidon, Essen 1999, ISBN 3-89350-448-6 , pp. 135-182.
expenditure
Secondary literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johann Wolfgang Goethe: Erwin and Elmire. A play with singing. [First version] . In: Karl Richter u. a. (Ed.): All works according to the epoch of his work. Munich edition . tape 1.2 . Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich / Vienna 1987, p. 12–36, here p. 12 .
  2. ^ Johann Wolfgang Goethe: Erwin and Elmire. A Singspiel. [Second version] . In: Karl Richter u. a. (Ed.): All works according to the epoch of his work. Munich edition . tape 3.1 . Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich / Vienna 1990, p. 330–359, here pp. 330 and 344 .
  3. ↑ Johann Wolfgang Goethe: All works based on the epochs of his work. Munich edition . Ed .: Karl Richter u. a. tape 3.1 . Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich / Vienna 1990, p. 887 . - Gabriele Busch-Salmen, Oliver Rosteck: Erwin and Elmire, 1st and 2nd version . In: Gabriele Busch-Salmen (Ed.): Music and dance in the stage works (=  Goethe-Handbuch Supplemente . Volume 1 ). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2008, ISBN 978-3-476-01846-5 , pp. 137–164, here p. 145 .
  4. ↑ Johann Wolfgang Goethe: All works based on the epochs of his work. Munich edition . Ed .: Karl Richter u. a. tape 1.2 . Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich / Vienna 1987, p. 700 . - Johann Wolfgang Goethe: All works according to the epochs of his work. Munich edition . Ed .: Karl Richter u. a. tape 3.1 . Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich / Vienna 1990, p. 888 .
  5. ↑ Detailed information including further settings of the 1st version by Carl David Stegmann, Abbé Georg Joseph Vogler , Martin Stephan Ruprecht, Christian Gottlob August Bergt and "Johann Baptist Schiedermayer" (= Johann Baptist Schiedermayr the Elder ?): Gabriele Busch-Salmen, Oliver Rosteck: Erwin and Elmire, 1st and 2nd version . In: Gabriele Busch-Salmen (Ed.): Music and dance in the stage works (=  Goethe-Handbuch Supplemente . Volume 1 ). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2008, ISBN 978-3-476-01846-5 , pp. 137-164 .
  6. ^ Gabriele Busch-Salmen, Oliver Rosteck: Erwin and Elmire, 1st and 2nd version . In: Gabriele Busch-Salmen (Ed.): Music and dance in the stage works (=  Goethe-Handbuch Supplemente . Volume 1 ). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2008, ISBN 978-3-476-01846-5 , pp. 137–164, here p. 144 : “Gotha 1775 (performance not verifiable).” - The following information is apparently based on confusion: Johann Wolfgang Goethe: All works based on the epochs of his creative work. Munich edition . Ed .: Karl Richter u. a. tape 3.1 . Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich / Vienna 1990, p. 888 : "Even later compositions by Erwin and Elmire (for example by Albert Schweitzer [sic!] Or Othmar Schoeck) did not get the" piece "into the repertoire."
  7. ^ Gabriele Busch-Salmen: Erwin and Elmire . In: Benedikt Jeßing, Bernd Lutz, Inge Wild (eds.): Metzler-Goethe-Lexikon . JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999, ISBN 3-476-01589-0 , p. 125–126, here p. 125 .
  8. ↑ Gisela Uellenberg: Erwin and Elmire . In: Gert Woerner, Rolf Geitler, Rudolf Radler (eds.): Kindlers Literature Lexicon in dtv . tape 8 . Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1974, DNB  540504386 , p. 3227–3228, here p. 3228 : “The new game was included in the writings of 1788 and set to music by JF Reichardt in 1790, but never performed.” - Gabriele Busch-Salmen, Walter Salmen: Erwin and Elmire - “Göthens poet Genius and Reichardt's musical genius ” . CD booklet text. In: Johann Friedrich Reichardt - Erwin and Elmire . cpo, Georgsmarienhütte 2004, DNB  358757533 , p. 7–11, here p. 10 : “Up to this point in time [September 1793], only two concert performances in Berlin have been documented; the work had to wait a long time for a scenic realization, which is in contradiction to the extremely positive reactions of those who heard the piece back then. ” - Gabriele Busch-Salmen, Oliver Rosteck: Erwin and Elmire, 1st and 2nd version . In: Gabriele Busch-Salmen (Ed.): Music and dance in the stage works (=  Goethe-Handbuch Supplemente . Volume 1 ). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2008, ISBN 978-3-476-01846-5 , pp. 137–164, here p. 145 : “Premiere before March 2nd, 1793, benefit concert for Wilhelmine Bachmann.” - Deviating information: Johann Wolfgang Goethe: All works based on the epochs of his work. Munich edition . Ed .: Karl Richter u. a. tape 3.1 . Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich / Vienna 1990, p. 887 : “In Reichardt's setting, Erwin and Elmire were only performed once (in June 1796). The Weimar court lady Luise von Göchhausen (1752–1807) had set up an enthusiastic performance with which the Duchess Anna Amalia should be surprised. ” - Doubtful statement: Heinz Wagner: The great manual of the opera . 4th edition. Nikol Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-937872-38-4 , p. 1018 : "Premiere: Hall 1791."
  9. ↑ Deetjen p. 125
  10. ↑ Ludwig Geiger : Erwin and Elmire under Munich censorship. Goethe yearbook , Volume 3 (1882), pp. 341–342http: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D~IA%3Dgoethejahrbuchv05germgoog~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3Dn357~doppelseiten%3D~LT%3DS.%20341%E2%80%93342~PUR%3D