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Alceste (1774) - Anton Schweitzer
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Background
Anton Schweitzer’s Alceste illustrates the complexities of classifying a German opera as Singspiel. While the term Singspiel typically refers to light German opera with spoken dialogue, the label was used more liberally and broadly before the nineteenth century. Alceste, for instance, features recitatives, rather than spoken dialogue, and the serious rather than comic subject matter had been presented as an Italian reform opera by Gluck and Calzabigi less than a decade earlier.
Stylistically, the Schweitzer setting (to a libretto by Christoph Martin Wieland) is akin to the opera serie of such composers as Hasse. However, the opera has a limited number of solo vocal parts, due to the problems associated with staging an opera in Weimar, where skilled singers were few.
The opera was quite successful (although Mozart criticized the work in a letter to his father). A later setting of Wieland’s text (by Benda, in 1786) indicates that German audiences were receptive to serious operas in their vernacular language.
Plot
The first act features Parthenia informing her sister Alceste that King Admet (Alceste’s husband) is doomed to die. According to the Oracle at Delphi, the only way to save Admet is through a human sacrifice; Alceste nobly accepts this fate.
In Act II, Admet experiences an unexplained improvement in his health, and he eventually realizes that Alceste has offered herself in his place. Although he tries to persuade his wife not to follow through on her decision, a resolved Alceste dies after bidding farewell to her family.
Herkules, a friend of Admet, appears at the court, where he learns about the death of Alceste at the beginning of Act III. Wanting to help his friend, Herkules confronts Admet to discuss a plan to rescue Alceste from the underworld.
Throughout Act IV, Admet struggles with his grief over Alceste’s passing. Parthenia attempts to comfort Admet, and the two of them arrange an offering to Apollo.
In the fifth act, an unnamed woman arrives with Herkules, who explains that his travel companion is waiting in another location to lift Admet’s spirits. Parthenia, realizes the enigmatic woman is none other than her sister, Alceste, and leaves to summon the angered Admet. Alceste hides and waits for Admet’s return. At first, Admet does not realize why he is being lured back to Herkules, but when he sees his wife, he rejoices. In spite of the happy ending, the way in which Herkules achieved this feat remains a mystery.
Bibliography
Title from title page: ALCESTE / VON WIELAND UND SCHWEITZER
Genre: Singspiel
Composer: Anton Schweitzer, 1735-1787
Librettist: Christoph Martin Wieland, 1733-1813
Libretto based on: Euripides’ Alcestis
Setting: Classical Pherae, Thessaly
Premiere: Weimar, Hoftheater, 28 May 1773
First published: Leipzig: Schwickert, 1774
Volume in the UNT Collection: Leipzig: Schwickert, 1774
For further reading on Alceste, see:
Bauman, Thomas. “Alceste (iv).” In Grove Music Online. Edited by Laura Macy. Accessed 5 March 2004. <http://www.grovemusic.com>
Bauman, Thomas. North German Opera in the Age of Goethe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Schweitzer, Anton. Alceste. Introduction by Thomas Bauman. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1986.\
Würtz, Roland. “Anton Schweitzer and Christoph Martin Wieland: The Theory of the Eighteenth-century Singspiel. Crosscurrents and the Mainstream of Italian Serious Opera 1730-1790. Studies in Music. Volume 7. London, Ontario: Department of Music History, Faculty of Music, University of Western Ontario, 1982. 148-54.
Physical
Dimensions: 25.7 x 30 cm.
Conservation: Foxing; Slight bleed-through; Pencil marks on front free endpage; Worn cover, especially around the edges; Spine is almost broken; Adhesive residue on inside front cover.
Binding: Marble paper on board with buckram spine. Spine has a worn title plate that reads "Alceste." (Other words are illegible.)
Comments: From the Lloyd Hibberd Collection; North Texas property stamps.