Der Bärenhäuter (opera)
[2] Siegfried Wagner composed the music and wrote the libretto for his opera which takes place during the Thirty Years' War near Bayreuth.
Based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale of the same name and the first of his 17 operas, Der Bärenhäuter received its premiere on 22 January 1899 at the National Theatre Munich.
In comparison to the preludes and overtures of his contemporaries, such as Eugen d'Albert, Engelbert Humperdinck and Richard Strauss, his overture's playing time of 14 minutes ranks equally as extensive as his peers' works, but unlike Richard Strauss' powerful orchestrations which entailed larger and larger orchestras, Wagner chose not to expand his orchestra.
In order to create a plausible setting for the work, Wagner wrote his libretto based on the aforementioned fairy tales, a legend from Spielmannsbuch by Wilhelm Hertz and a historical event from the Thirty Years' War.
Even though the controversy remained unresolved, Wagner completed act 2 at the end of the Bayreuth Festival in October 1897 and the entire score on his 29th birthday, 6 June 1898.
Max Brockhaus Musikverlag [de] in Leipzig published the work, which after its premiere was included in the repertoire of various theaters in German-speaking countries for a total of 77 performances in the first season.
Venues included Frankfurt, Gotha, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Vienna under the direction of Gustav Mahler, and Prague.
[4] The inhabitants of a small village welcome home the returning soldiers of the Thirty Years' War, but ignore the unemployed and penniless Hans Kraft, whose mother died during his absence.
The devil approaches him laughing and seizes this opportunity to take advantage of his dire straits and recruits Hans to look after the cauldrons in hell where the poor sinners smolder.
When the devil departs on a journey, Hans fires up the boilers and recognizes the plaintive voice of his former sergeant, Kaspar Wild, who had willfully harassed him during the war.
Hans must not wash himself and surrender to the devil if he does not find a girl who loves him and remains faithful for three years, despite his hideous appearance.
He is to give one half of his ring to the girl and if she remains faithful to him, a sign of her true love, he will be redeemed.
After most of the guests and the priest have departed, the innkeeper rudely awakens the mayor, who has fallen asleep at his table and threatens to pawn his property if he does not pay his long overdue bill.
After an orchestral interlude, Saint Peter appears, blocks Hans's way and tells him that the Plassenburg will be attacked by the Wallensteins if he doesn't warn the unsuspecting sleeping castle residents.
