Albert Lortzing Suggest updates
Gustav Albert Lortzing.
Born Berlin, 23 October 1801.
Died Berlin, 21 January 1851.
German composer, conductor, librettist, singer and actor.
Albert Lortzing was one of the most popular composers of opera in Germany, and several of his works have stayed in the repertoire ever since. Quite why he has failed to catch on in Britain and other countries is a bit of a mystery. His music is infectiously tuneful and easy to listen to, with the influence of Weber and Mendelssohn prominent, as would be expected. Der Wildschütz and Zar und Zimmermann are the two operas that are perhaps the most consistently popular works, and the former was much enjoyed by audiences at the Buxton Festival of 2011. Whether that will be enough to stimulate new interest remains to be seen.
He was largely self-taught, simply because he grew up in a theatrical family, never in one place for long. Perhaps this results in a lack of sophistication compared with Mendelssohn, Schumann, Flotow and other contemporaries, but his works were enormously popular in his lifetime, though he never made money from them and died in poverty.
Operas performed in Scotland are shown in bold:
01 Ali Pascha von Janina (1824, prod 1828) ()
02 Die beiden Schützen (Leipzig 1837) (cpsr)
03 Zar und Zimmermann (Leipzig 1837) (cpsr)
04 Caramo (1839) ()
05 Hans Sachs (1840) ()
06 Casanova (1841) ()
07 Der Wildschütz, oder Die Stimme der Natur (Leipzig 1842) (cpsr)
08 Undine (Magdeburg 1842) (cpsr)
09 Der Waffenschmied (Vienna 1846) (cpsr)
10 Zum Grossadmiral (Leipzig 1847) (cpsr)
11 Regina (1848, prod 1899) ()
12 Rolands Knappen (Leipzig 1849) (cpsr)
13 Die Opernprobe (Berlin 1851) (cpsr)
