“BUT THERE IS ANOTHER INTRIGUE AND A COMIC ELEMENT PLACED ALONGSIDE”: – THE RELATION OF LORTZING’S TO DEINHARDSTEIN’S DRAMA

IRMLIND CAPELLE

Although there are more literary studies1 of ’s than studies by musicologists2 there are only a few investigations of his librettos from a dramaturgical point of view.3 But it is of particular interest so to approach Lortzing’s librettos because he bases his operas on dramas, and thus the comparison can be easily made. In this way one can get an insight into the basic differences between a drama and an opera libretto. The research on librettos which has taken place over the last thirty years has noted the following main differences between an ideal libretto and a drama:4

1 Hellmuth Laue, Die Operndichtung Lortzings: Quellen und Umwelt. Verhältnis zur Romantik und zu Wagner, , 1932; Jürgen Lodemann, Lortzing und seine Spiel- Opern: Deutsche Bürgerlichkeit, Diss., Freiburg, 1962; Petra Fischer, Vormärz und Zeitbürgertum – Gustav Albert Lortzings Operntexte: Eine Monographie, Stuttgart, 1996. 2 Jürgen Schläder, “Die Dramaturgie in Lortzings komischen Opern”, in Oper als Text: Romanistische Beiträge zur Libretto-Forschung, ed. Albert Gier, Heidelberg, 1986, 249-78; Jürgen Schläder, “Das Solo-Finale: Zu Form und Funktion der Baculus-Arie ‘Fünftausend Taler’”, in Festschrift Rudolf Elvers zum 60. Geburtstag, Tutzing, 1985, 447-61; Jürgen Schläder, “” auf dem Musiktheater: Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der deutschen Spieloper, Bonn-Bad Godesberg, 1979; Albert Lortzing und die Konversationsoper in der 1. Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts, an account of the Symposium on 22 and 23 October 2001 in the Lippischen Landesbibliothek to celebrate the bicentenary of Albert Lortzing’s birth, commissioned by the Albert-Lortzing-Gesellschaft, ed. Irmlind Capelle, Munich, 2004. 3 See the publications of Jürgen Schläder (referred to in the previous note), and essential for dramaturgical analysis, Thomas Betzwieser, Sprechen und Singen: Ästhetik und Erscheinungsform der Dialogoper, Stuttgart and Weimar, 2002, especially 317-28. 4 Dieter Borchmeyer, “Textform”, from “Libretto”, in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 2nd edn, Vol. V, “Sachteil”, Kassel, 1996, 1122-23. The discussion, of 132 Irmlind Capelle

1. Since a sung text takes more time, the plot is reduced or compressed.

2. All situations and their emotions are presented through sight and sound.

3. Dramatic time is compressed and extended.

4. The static structure of the plot (and therefore sudden changes of the situations without logical connections in the plot).

5. Because of their closed structure it is possible to isolate musical numbers.

6. Words are sung both together and in opposition in ensemble and choral scenes.

7. The language of the libretto is changed by its reduction to catch phrases and by lyrical pleonasm.

It is of particular interest to study Lortzing’s operas with these criteria in mind. Since there is so much dialogue in his works, perhaps they seem to be more like dramas than the librettos of thoroughly composed operas. At the same time, these dialogue operas have to ensure that the beginning of the music after a section of dialogue is properly motivated.5 In what follows we will consider how this all applies to Lortzing’s Hans Sachs (LoWV 436). This opera has been chosen because Lortzing himself made some indirect, somewhat theoretical remarks on it. Furthermore Johann Ludwig Deinhardstein’s drama which Lortzing had adapted for the opera was very successful, which means that we can compare a fine

whether the libretto is rather an epic or a classical drama can be omitted here (see Albert Gier, Das Libretto: Theorie und Geschichte einer musikoliterarischen Gattung, Darmstadt, 1998). 5 On these questions Betzwieser, Sprechen und Singen, dealt with the basic historic and aesthetic aspects, and the dramaturgical questions which depend on this. He analyses the dialogue opera between 1770 and 1830 und therefore the operas of Lortzing are not his main theme. 6 See Chronologisch-Thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke von Gustav Albert Lortzing, ed. Irmlind Capelle, Cologne, 1994, where all the necessary details of the form of the opera, the sources and performances will be found.