Die Feen (German: [diː feːn], The Fairies) is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner.

It has never established itself firmly in the operatic repertory although it receives occasional performances, on stage or in concert, most often in Germany.

Although the music of Die Feen shows the influences of Carl Maria von Weber and other composers of the time, commentators have recognised embryonic features of the mature Wagnerian opera.

Die Feen was Wagner's first completed opera, composed in 1833, when he was 20 years old and working as a part-time chorus master in Würzburg.

The year before he started composition, Wagner had abandoned his first attempt at writing an opera, Die Hochzeit (The Wedding).

Second, there was a fear among the authorities in Germany and Austria that the performance of operas in German would attract nationalist and revolutionary followers.

These include redemption, a mysterious stranger demanding that their lover not ask their name, and long expository narratives.

Among the changes in the 1834 version was the rewriting from scratch of Ada's grand scene Weh' mir, so nah' die fürchterliche Stunde.

Wagner personally gave the original manuscript of Die Feen to King Ludwig II of Bavaria.

The manuscript was later given as a gift to Adolf Hitler, and may have perished with him in flames in his Berlin bunker in the final days of World War II.

A draft, in Wagner's hand, of dialogue he wrote to substitute for some of the opera's recitatives, is in the Stefan Zweig Collection at the British Library.

[6] Die Feen was premiered in Munich on 29 June 1888 with a cast including several singers who had created roles in Wagner's later operas.

On 11 April 2020 the Vienna State Opera streamed the performance of the children's version from 3 March 2012 conducted by Kathleen Kelly on the internet as part of their free offerings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The US staged premiere was held by Lyric Opera of Los Angeles on 11 June 2010, conducted by Robert Sage at the Pasadena Playhouse.

In the meantime his father, the king, has died from grief and the kingdom is being attacked by their enemy Murold who demands they surrender Arindal's sister Lora as his wife.

He sings of an evil witch who had disguised herself as a beautiful woman (War einst 'ne böse Hexe wohl).

She sings of how she is willing to sacrifice her immortality and pay the price, however hard it is, necessary to win Arindal (Wie muss ich doch beklagen).

A procession of fairies comes out of the palace and Zemina and Farzana tell Ada that her father has died and she is now queen.

Just as she begins to fear that they are right (O musst du Hoffnung schwinden), a messenger arrives to announce that Arindal is on his way.

But she sorrowfully explains that the fairy-king had required as a condition of her renouncing her immortality, that she conceal her fairy background from Arindal for eight years and on the last day torment him as best she can.

In truth, Morald is not dead, the army Harald led was full of traitors, and the children are still alive.

The shield fails Arindal but when Groma advises him to hold up the sword, the bronze men vanish.

As a German Romantic opera, Die Feen imitated the musical style of Carl Maria von Weber.

"The later works may contain individual passages that are more 'advanced' than anything in the youthfully imitative ways of Die Feen, but as entities they are less satisfying.

However, there is already a tendency in the opera to move away from a strict numbers form and to present the singers with long challenging passages.

Recurring themes or simple leitmotifs associated with characters and situations already show a tendency towards something that Wagner would later use in a far more sophisticated manner in his mature works.

[4] Another anticipation of the composer's mature manner is how orchestra often carries the tune while vocal parts are declamatory.

[9] Of the various arias, Blyth picks out Ada's "huge act 2 scene, which calls for a genuine dramatic soprano" noting that Birgit Nilsson had recorded it.

He sees the ensembles as anticipating Tannhäuser and Lohengrin but picks out "the delightful buffo duet for Gernot... and Drolla", saying it looks forward more to Das Liebesverbot "except that it surpasses in unassuming tunefulness anything in the following score".