Erwin und Elmire is a singspiel

Singspiel

A Singspiel is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera...

, described as a Schauspiel mit Gesang, in two acts by the German composer Johann André

Johann André

Johann André was a German musician, composer and music publisher.In 1774, as the patriarch of a Huguenot family, André founded one of the first music publishing houses to be independent of a bookshop, in Offenbach am Main...

, with a libretto by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...

, after Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...

's ballad of Angelica and Edwin, The Hermit, in chapter 8 of his sentimental novel The Vicar of Wakefield

The Vicar of Wakefield

The Vicar of Wakefield is a novel by Irish author Oliver Goldsmith. It was written in 1761 and 1762, and published in 1766, and was one of the most popular and widely read 18th-century novels among Victorians...

.

André was the first to set Goethe's text in 1775, but he was closely followed by Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel whose own Erwin und Elmire

Erwin und Elmire

Erwin und Elmire is a singspiel in two acts by Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, with a libretto by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, after Oliver Goldsmith's ballad of Angelica and Edwin, The Hermit, in his sentimental novel The Vicar of Wakefield.Goethe moved to Weimar, in circumstances...

was performed in 1776. Versions followed by Carl David Stegmann

Carl David Stegmann

Carl David Stegmann was a German tenor, harpsichordist, conductor, and composer.He was born in Staucha near Meissen, the son of Johann Ehrenfried Stegmann and Anna Christiana Bretzner, and married Karoline Johanna Eleanore Linz producing two sons and four daughters...

 (Hamburg, 1776), Ernst Wilhelm Wolf

Ernst Wilhelm Wolf

Ernst Wilhelm Wolf was a German composer.-Life:Wolf was born in Grossen Behringen in Thuringia, today part of the Hörselberg-Hainich municipality. His elder brother Ernst Friedrich was a composer and organist who studied under Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel...

 (Weimar, 1785) and Karl Christian Agthe

Karl Christian Agthe

Karl Christian Agthe was a German organist and composer.Born in Hettstedt, Agthe served as court organist to Frederick Albrecht, Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg. Among his compositions are six Singspiele, a ballet, and piano sonatas. He died in Ballenstedt; a son, Albrecht Agthe, was a music...

 (Ballenstedt, 1785), also Johann Friedrich Reichardt

Johann Friedrich Reichardt

Johann Friedrich Reichardt was a German composer, writer and music critic.-Early life:Reichardt was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, to lutenist and Stadtmusiker Johann Reichardt . Johann Friedrich began his musical training, in violin, keyboard, and lute, as a child...

 (Berlin, 1793) who based his work on a later revised text by Goethe. Othmar Schoeck

Othmar Schoeck

Othmar Schoeck was a Swiss composer and conductor.He was known mainly for his considerable output of art songs and song cycles, though he also wrote a number of operas and instrumental compositions including two string quartets and...

's songs and incidental music

Incidental music

Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....

 to the play premiered in 1915.

Performance history

The opera was first performed privately in Frankfurt in May 1775. A public production by the Döbbelin Company appeared in Berlin at the Theater in der Behrenstraße on 17 July 1775.

Roles

Role	Voice type Voice type A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types...	Premiere cast, 17 July 1775 (Conductor: )
Elmire, in love with Erwin	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
Erwin, in love with Elmire	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
Bernardo, tutor to Elmire	tenor
Olympia, mother of Elmire	soprano

Synopsis

Elmire is distressed because she believes her cold behaviour towards Erwin has caused him to run away. Bernardo, Elmire’s tutor, persuades her to meet an old hermit in a secluded valley. The hermit is really Erwin in disguise.