Roland's squire
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Roland's Knappen (The Longed-For Luck) |
| Shape: | Opera |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Albert Lortzing |
| Libretto : | Albert Lortzing |
| Literary source: | after Johann Karl August Musäus |
| Premiere: | 1849 |
| Place of premiere: | Leipzig |
| Place and time of the action: | Spain and Switzerland, Fairytale World, 814 |
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The opera Roland's Knappen or The Desired Happiness is Albert Lortzing's last full-length opera. It is at the same time highly funny and deeply sad. With this work, the composer responded to the failure of the republican uprisings of 1848.
Since his text contained numerous political allusions, Lortzing evidently had to pretend to be a strange librettist with “GM”.
His “fairy tale opera” loosely follows the Musäus fairy tale “Roland's Knappen”, it tells the wanderings of three knights returning home of the fallen hero Roland .
Lortzing uses this template to reflect in fantastic disguises the complacency of the Prussian government, especially the militarism of this state and the unworldliness and ignorance of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV . B. sung: "And that should be a world order?"
“Rolands Knappen” was premiered in Leipzig in 1849 , albeit with strong lines of censorship, the audience nevertheless understood what it was about and reacted with applause. After a few performances, the piece was canceled, ostensibly due to illness in the ensemble.
Without any censorship, actually, “Rolands Knappen” was first performed in Freiberg in spring 2005 , under the direction of Ingolf Huhn .
literature
- Roland's Knappen, or: The longed-for happiness. In: Georg Richard Kruse : Albert Lortzing (= Famous Musicians. Life and Character Pictures with an Introduction to the Works of the Masters. Volume VII). Harmonie, Berlin 1899 ( online in the Internet Archive ).
Web links
- Work data on Roland's Knappen based on the MGG with discography at Operone