German Verismo opera competition 1893

[G.D.]

Ok, I did some googling on the next 8 entries, too. I would really like some feedback on my speculations regarding entry 17 ("Robert Horst")

13. Paul Lorberg: Margaretha's Verbannung.
Paul Lorberg (1834-1911) is possibly somewhat better known for some lieder and pedagogical piano pieces. His submission, Margaretha's Verbannung, was apparently not even really an opera but incidental music for a spoken Otto Caspari stage play. It had also already been performed before the competition, thus violating the rules. It also fails the requirement that the libretto should be original.
14.   Franz Parsche: Die Biedermänner.
Another dead end; I don't know who Franz Parsche might have been, and the fact that he shares his name with a more famous Austrian politician and industrialist (could they be the same person?) makes searches a bit difficult.
15.   Anonym: Der Vetter Veit.
Since I get no hits on the title of the opera, this one's a dead end for me.
16.   Carl Zimmermann: Die Braut von Abydos.
Probably not the instrument maker. A more likely candidate is the violinist Richard Carl Zimmermann, who emigrated to New Zealand (and could be the candidate contemporary newspapers characterized as working in Britain), but who knows? That hypothesis might be supported by the choice of Byron for the opera, a choice that would put the submission about as far away from verismo as one could imagine.
17.   Robert Horst: Nils.
Another completely obscure entry, and there is no composer in any record with that name. It could, however, be a pseudonym (after all, the competition requested anonymity) and that points to a somewhat remarkable possibility: The main protagonist in Delius's opera Irmelin is named "Nils". That opera was completed in 1892 and never performed in Delius' lifetime. Without having looked at the score, it strikes me as a distinct possibility that Robert Horst's Nils is, in fact, Delius' Irmelin (after all, as an Englishman, Delius would obviously use a German-sounding pseudonym to prevent bias; and he did try to break into the German opera scene at the time). Also, Delius later submitted Margot la Rouge to a Sonzogno competition, so I wouldn't put it past him to participate here.
18.   Clemens Frankenstein: Suleika.
Clemens Franckenstein (1875-1942) should be familiar enough but notice those dates: Suleika would be a very young student's work: one might surmise, given the title, that its style, themes and exoticism point forward to the mature composer. In that case, Suleika would presumably also miss the parameters for this competition. It has, as far as I know, sunk without a trace and never been revived (and the composer might, for all I know, have pilfered it for later works).
19.   Max Weydert: Francesco Michieli.
Another obscure name, though Max Weydert did publish a number of lieder (according to the LiederNet Archive); I have little information beyond that (apparently Weydert attempted to stage an opera on Enoch Arden in Vienna a few years later) and no dates. The title of his opera refers to a famous bandit, rebel and folk figure, suggesting that Weydert understood what the competition was looking for better than many of the others.
20.   Alexander Myon: Der Deserteur.
That there is an anagram of "anonym" embedded in that name, would strongly suggest a pseudonym. However, there *is*, in fact, records of an Alexander Myon (1870-1919), composer, conductor, pianist and Musikdirektor in Brixen in Tyrol, and the name occurs in a couple of other concert programs from the time (and in Tyrolean libraries). The title also suggests a submission that might have been in line with the competition guidelines.

[tpaloj]

G.D., thank you for sleuthing this information about the entries so far. It's very much appreciated. Regarding your findings about the possible Delius connection to "Nils": you seem to be making a convincing case for it. I'm no Delius expert so I can neither confirm or deny, but I encourage you and others to pursue this fascinating lead further.

I'll save you the trouble for three further operas coming up in the list:

36. Das Irrlicht (The Will-o-Wisp), by Carl Grammann. Libretto by Kurt Geucke. The story takes place on a pilot-boat station on the Normandian coast. The music, as well as the text, is dramatic and veristic but not quite Wagnerian. Ernst Schuch calls it "Neo-Italianer". Very powerful and expressive music. Well received when it was premiered in Dresden in 1894, it was also later performed in a couple of other cities. It seems to me that the composer's unexpected death in 1897 stalled any further performances and prevented the opera from otherwise becoming much a better known work.

I'm currently typesetting this opera, though because of the notation-wise complex work involved it will be taking a lot of time.

44. Ingrid, by Carl Grammann. Libretto by Theodor Kersten. The story is set in Norway, and the opera was quickly dismissed when it was premiered. It was criticized for having a very poor libretto. In addition, the music failed to make an impression on its audience. This opera is in two acts, so it's strange that it was accepted into the competition. Perhaps it was disqualified? Grammann, by the way, submitted two (!) operas for this competition.

59. Aino, by Gustav Schreck. This work is interesting to me, as a Finn, because of the composer being connected to the Krohn family through his wife, Emmy. I'm currently writing an article about this work.

By the way, I created a work-in-progress database of sorts to keep track of my notes regarding this contest. I've included some transcriptions of the German letters from the Coburg City Library's collections as well (hover over green or red fields to see the transcriptions). You can view it here: Opera Contest (1893)

[eschiss1]

viaf suggests Rosenkranz may have been Friedrich Christian Rosenkranz (1818-1903).
Schreck interests me too, I recall uploading a chamber work of his years ago to IMSLP I think...

[G.D.]

Looking at some of the (few) comments from judges in tpaloj's link might actually shed some light on some of the entries I've already tried to google. Apparently Ernst von Schuch completely dismissed the operas by the otherwise mysterious Joseph Rieß and Franz Parsche as "vollständig dilettantisch" and "Ganz unmöglich – kindische Posse", respectively. That might suggest that these composers were, indeed, happy amateurs, perhaps belonging to Duke Ernst's own circle, which would explain the lack of records of these composers.

Another thing to consider: Apparenly, it is supposedly the case that Ferdinand Hummel (1855-1928) – one of the foremost champions of a genuinely verismo style in Germany – submitted his one-act opera Mara to the competition under a pseudonym (and probably with a different title for the opera). Where Hummel's Mara might be hiding in that list, if it does, is tricky to determine: It is definitely not "106. Georg Pittrich: Mara", since that one (actually "Marga"; "Mara" must be a clerical error) is one of the few submissions with a subsequent track record, and it is probably not "72. Robert Wiemann: Der Gefangene im Kaukasus" (the title of which would fit the setting of Hummel's opera), since Wiemann was a real composer.

[G.D.]

Some more googling:
21.   Alfred Ernst: Irrige Rache.
The composer, Alfred Ernst (1868-1916) [not to be confused with Alfred Ernst (1860-1898), the son of Wilhelm Ernst], seems like a remarkable figure: born in Germany, moved to the US in 1894 to lead the St. Louis Choral-Symphony Society (now the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra) until 1907 (he worked with Scott Joplin and may have helped with the groundwork for Treemonisha), before returning to Germany and getting killed on the front in WW1. Apparently, he had some later operas staged, too, but his 1893 entry was no success (according comments from both Goldmark ("Musik unmöglich") and Schuch ("Als unmöglich weitergesandt") and might reflect Ernst's relative inexperience at the time. Has a German Wikipedia page.
22.   Otto Kurth: Das Glück von Hohenstein.
Though pretty obscure, Otto Kurth (1846-1906) was a music teacher and seminary instructor in Lüneburg, who at one point corresponded with Hans von Bülow and who composed quite a bit of music (including, apparently, three symphonies) without garnering much attention. Von Shuch apparently didn't appreciate this one ("Outdated and ponderous in its entire style. A luridly spectacular chivalric tragedy – revenge, fire [...] and [...]. The intended pathos would likely turn into comedy on stage"), but, somewhat remarkably, it was actually – as one of few among the submissions – eventually staged, first in December 1900 at the Kiel City Theater and subsequently in a couple of other places as well. Von Schuch was at least correct that the libretto, based on a novel by a popular German writer (Natalie von Eschstruth), doesn't fit the verismo criteria.
23.   Leopold Bauer: Elsa.
Here, I draw a blank. The title strikes one as a bold move given the Wagner association, and one can't help but suspect that "Leopold Bauer" might be a pretty silly pen name for one of Duke Ernst's aristocratic friends.
24.   Louis Seibert: Helge
Ludwig "Louis" Seibert (1833 –1903) was a German music director in Wiesbaden and composer – particularly of songs and choral works, but also some larger-scale works. The title of the opera suggests a piece of Nordic or Germantic romantic medievalism of the sort that the competition was actively trying to move away from.
25. Stieber (Halle): Das Verlöbnis im Dunkeln
This strikes me as one of the more enigmatic entries of all. There *is* a significant composer Hans Stieber who was the founding director of the Hochschule für Theater und Musik in Halle an der Saale, but he was born in 1886, so this is not him. Now, Von Schuch's comment is "Ganz niedrig, nicht beachtenswerth" suggests that the submission might not even have been classical opera at all but rather a populist farce or amateur singspiel ("niedrig" rather than "schwach" or "dilettantisch") by someone who completely misunderstood the lofty artistic ideals behind the competition. Though Hans Stieber's immediate family were lawyers and judges, some of them had some connection with the theatre, too. Perhaps I'll imagine some amateur – maybe more than one – in Hans Stieber's close family working on the score with young Hans hanging around, thereby – though the result was doomed to fail – awakening Hans's interest in being a composer.

[G.D.]

More google:
26.   Thadäus von Borodzics: Die Sühne.
Records of Thaddeus von Borodzicz (or Taddäus von Borodzicz, or – apparently – some related variant) primarily concern a protracted legal battle he had to get his opera König Lear staged (the theater management refused, and von Borodzicz took aggressive, high-profile, persistent, and unsuccessful legal action over damages). I struggle to find much other information about him, including dates. The title of his entry suggests a reasonable match with the competition criteria (same as 9. Joseph Rieß' choice), though von Schuch's comments are "unfinished and drawn-out" and "a congratulatory chorus that has absolutely nothing to do with the action."
27.   G. Fr. Mögling: Die Wunderblume.
A complete mystery: there is no record of the name anywhere. Von Schuch's comment is "The composer strives for pleasing, melodic invention—though by no means outstanding. The text is unclear and muddled." One might guess at some amateur lieder composer trying to adapt a fairytale, but who knows?
28.   Peter Faßbaender: Gudrun.
German-Swiss composer Peter Fassbänder (1869-1920) has a thread (well: a single post) on this forum and a German wiki page. The title of the opera suggests that he, like most others, missed the mark a bit, and if one wonders how he managed to fit the saga into a single-act format, then he probably didn't: Von Schuch's comment is "A score executed with great care, testifying in every respect to superior technical craftsmanship. The invention, however, is perhaps a bit heavy-handed – reminiscent, once again, of Wagner. The verses [...] are good. But – this is not a drama, nor an opera – it is really just two scenes torn from a drama, from a larger work." I don't know what Gudrun's subsequent fate might have been, but Fassbänder wrote four operas in total, and given the positive feedback on the music, the music was presumably reused. Sounds like a composer worth looking further into.
29.   Josef Zbiral: Enoch Arden.
Another mystery: there are records of a Josef Zbiral (1875-1932), professional bassoonist and possibly a minor composer, but he seems a bit too young (true, Franckenstein was the same age, but Franckenstein has a record of early ambitions). Perhaps a relative? Or some relative submitting a work in the future bassoonist's name? As for the setting, Enoch Arden could, I suppose, work as verismo.
30.   Hugo Möbius: Terameo und Rosa.
Yet another mysterious entry: The only hit on the name is a school director in Dresden, so this could be pseudonym ... on the other hand, that school director did have ties to Coburg, having written a biography on the local Coburg folk-writer Heinrich Schaumberger, so it is far from impossible. Von Schuch's comment is "Musicalisch mittelgut, textlich ganz unmöglich", which might in fact support the school director hypothesis: An amateur with some background in music theory and a solid literary background, but no experience writing librettos, which led to a literary, overstuffed libretto unsuitable for the stage.

[eschiss1]

Max Weydert was born in 1871.

Horst possibly Robert Eduard Wilhelm Horst, born 1858 June 4 in Schleiz, died 1931. See VIAF and MusicSack archive.

[G.D.]

Thanks for the dates on Weydert and the pointers on Horst. Unfortunately, it is hard for me to get access to the source material from MusicSack so I can't doublecheck, but it is certainly likely that virtually all traces of many minor composers could have been more or less completely obliterated by e.g. WWII, so the fact that I can't find any info using google might not mean very much.

[eschiss1]

I doubt all copies of the reference materials were destroyed during WWII as the person who compiled MusicSack presumably had access to them, but yes, one might have to go to a library to read the 1977 edition of Opernlexikon, for copyright reasons. (Or not. Internet Archive.)

[G.D.]

Yes, I didn't think the sources MusicSack refers to were destroyed; it was rather a possible explanation for why there are so few resources and why the composers are otherwise lost to time to the extent there are. One could easily imagine minor composers whose entire output, apart from their Coburg submission, is lost, for instance.

Anyways, more google:

31.   Richard Kronstorfer: Ostermontag in Palermo.
The only hit on the name is a school teacher in Vienna (ca. 1873-1928). Von Schuch's brief comment is merciless ("Schwacher Versuch eines Dilettanten. Textlich unmöglich"), so the hypothesis that Kronstorfer was an amateur is not exactly disconfirmed. One imagines that the opera shares topic with Verdi's Sicilian Vesper, which would at least not be entirely unsuitable for verismo treatment.
32.   C.A. Raida: Des Königs Cadetten.
Karl Alexander Raida (1852-1923) was a writer, conductor, theatre manager and composer, mostly of operettas. Indeed, his worklist shows a comic opera "Des Königs Cadetten", with a text written by Wilhelm Fellechner, from ca. 1879. He probably dusted that one off (possibly tweaking the orchestration a little) and submitted what would certainly be a massive stylistic mismatch with the competition criteria. The jury apparently recognized it for what it was; von Schuch's comment is simply "Zur Concurrenz nicht [...]", which I suspect should be completed with "nicht zugelassen" or something similar.
33.   Eduard Behm: Sarolta.
Eduard Behm (1862-1946) is a more familiar name and has a thread on this forum. Without having heard a note of his music, I assume that his style (Schumann, Brahms, Reinecke) might have been a tad old-fashioned for the competition. German Wikipedia lists three operas but does not mention Sarolta; I have no idea what happened to it. It is, I suppose, a coincidence (and a piece of silly trivia) that Behm was born only weeks before the premiere of Ferenc Erkel's opera "Sarolta", but it did mess a bit with some of my searches.
34.   G. Grunewald: Astrella.
An important entry. Though forgotten today, Gottfried Grünewald (1857-1929) was a Magdeburg-based choral director (ultimately Königlicher Musikdirektor) and composer of operas and choral works (he has a stub in Wikipedia), and although Astrella didn't succeed in Coburg, Grünewald understood and fulfilled the competition criteria; Astrella enjoyed some success after its subsequent 1894 premiere, and musicologists apparently consider it an early prime examples of the German verismo wave (alongside e.g. Ferdinand Hummel's Mara).
35.   W. Freudenberg: Das Mädchen von Treppi.
Wilhelm Freudenberg (1838–1928) was a conductor, musicologist, theater director and prolific composer of operas, of which some eight were staged (the most successful might have been Der Sanct Katharinentag in 1889); German Wikipedia also mentions some unpublished ones, including the present one. The source material, a novel by later Nobel laureate Paul Heyse, would arguably fit the verismo criteria perfectly, and the submission was commended by von Schuch: "Highly noteworthy, containing much that is appealing and effective. Since the author adheres quite closely to Heyse's novella, the result is – naturally – a very fine drama" (though also with some caveats: "The character of the police inspector, however, is entirely unclear – as is the backstory to the unfolding action.")
36.   Carl Grammann: Das Irrlicht.
tpaloj has already described this one, one of Carl Grammann's (1844-1897) two submissions to the competition. Das Irrlich received praise from von Schuch and is one of relatively few submissions with a subsequent performance history. The composer is also not quite as obscure as many of the others (he even has an English Wikipedia stub!).

[G.D.]

The next ones are easier, but notice no. 40!
37.   A. Leitermayer: Hans Burgauer.
The Vienna-based Leitermayer family produced a number of musicians, of whom everyone is completely forgotten today. Alexander Leitermayer (1826-1898) was a clarinetist and bandmaster who produced a large amount of works for military use but also a number of operas. "Hans Burgauer" sounds like an opera on a historical theme and I can't imagine that it remotely matched the competition criteria.
38.   Emil Liepe: Colomba.
Emil Liepe (1860-1940) was primarily known in his time as an operatic baritone, voice teacher and editor, but he also composed operas and symphonic poems. Colomba, based on the novel by Carmen author Prosper Mérimée, seems to have been an appropriately intense and blood-soaked verismo affair, and it was eventually produced in Königsberg in 1894 but failed to gain a toehold in the repertoire.
39.   Hans Dütschke: Die Wurzel der Wahrheit.
There is plenty of information about Hans Dütschke (1848-1928), a celebrated German classical scholar, archaeologist, art historian and figure in German 19th century academic life. But Dütschke, a genuine Renessaince man, also composed – mostly lieder and chamber music but also opera – and was also, notably, a driving force behind the German Handel resurgence in the 1920s and arranged performance versions of a number of Handel works. This opera didn't succeed (von Schuch is damning: "Musically far weaker than some of the other operas, yet not without talent in its libretto – a charming little rustic comedy – it is simply that the author seems to have lacked practical skill"), but Dütschke apparently had another opera (or the same work under a different title), Trinitatisnacht, staged in Dortmund in 1894.
40.   Franz Kurti: Erlöst.
Franz Curti (or Kurti) (1854-1898) was a successful Swiss-German opera composer (and successful dentist, of all things). He had already enjoyed a major success with his opera Hertha in 1887, and his later opera Lili-Tsee (1896) was performed at the Metropolitan. Erlöst, however, failed in Coburg, and von Schuch's comment is interesting: "Musically far superior to the previous one [a bit unclear which one], but objectionable in terms of its libretto. How could anyone be so unfeeling and tasteless as to adapt this subject matter for an opera? A man – who divorced his first wife because she lost her sanity after childbirth – brings his second wife into those very same rooms. On the wedding night, the madwoman returns, cured, and a ghastly catastrophe ensues. The reader is truly relieved [Erlöst] to put this book down." In other words, it was *von Schuch* who failed to adhere to the competition criteria here (and who reveals the inherent tension between verismo and the governing bourgeois morality that was really at work). Erlöst was at least successfully staged later and – crucially – partially revived in 2005: Apparently, a double CD with excerpts from the opera (I don't know what) is, with excerpts from other Curti operas and some songs, available from the franzcurtifestival website! As far as I can tell (thus far), that makes Erlöst the only competition entry, apart from the prelude to Lehar's Rodrigo, that actually exists, at least in part, on record in any form. I have sent an e-mail to them to see if it is possible to get ahold of this one.

[G.D.]

I see that this festival has already been discussed on this site (apparently I don't master the search function here very well, which might bode ill for my Coburg search project). Some of you might even have this double cd. Does anyone know exactly what's on it?

[eschiss1]

Madwoman on the... that sounds somewhat like Jane Eyre, which I have no trouble at all imagining von Schuch also despised for similar reasons. (I only had the pleasure of reading the latter recently, but that delay was my loss.)

[Wheesht]

I see that this festival has already been discussed on this site (apparently I don't master the search function here very well, which might bode ill for my Coburg search project). Some of you might even have this double cd. Does anyone know exactly what's on it?

CD1:
Track 1. Ouverture de l'Opéra Erlöst (8.41) [live recording, Victoria Hall, Geneva, 28 May 2005]
Tracks 2 to 7. Large extraits de l'opéra en une acte Lili Tsee (59:19) [live recording, Victoria Hall, Geneva, 28 May 2005]
CD2:
Tracks 1 to 5: Cinq Lieder– one of which is "Das Frotholied" from the opera Hertha. Text by Margarete Vollhardt-Wittich
Tracks 6 to 10: Cantate dramatique Die Gletscherjungfrau, 1ère partie [live recording, Victoria Hall, Geneva, 28 May 2005] (32:58)

[Wheesht]

104. Anton Beer: Liebe
This is the composer Anton Beer-Walbrunn, before he added his mother's maiden name Walbrunn to his own. He has his own threads here on UC.