Schubert: Der Spiegelritter, D 11

Description

Unfortunately, it has remained a fragment: "Der Spiegelritter" D 11, based on a libretto by August von Kotzebue, is Franz Schubert's earliest surviving stage work and thus marks the beginning of his almost lifelong endeavours to establish himself as a stage composer. The composer left behind eleven completed and a further eight unfinished works, of which only three were ever performed during his lifetime.

"Der Spiegelritter" D 11, which belongs to the Singspiel genre, is a typical "Viennese magic opera", which was popular and successful in Vienna even before Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and still in Schubert's day. As Schubert's autograph is undated and there are no other known sources on the question of when it was composed, numerous philological clues had to be used to narrow down the date. in the Introduction to the volume, the editor deals in detail with the complex question of dating, the libretto source, the classification of the fragmentary parts in the plot, questions as to the writing materials used in the corrections and the scoring. The edition itself presents the last authentic version of the fragment as it is seen in the autograph. However, not only did the work remain unfinished as a whole, but two of the surviving musical numbers are also fragments. in order to better place the composed parts in their dramatic context, the appendix of the volume contains the complete libretto as Schubert probably had it.