[1] For the libretto, he freely adapted a 1733 French play by Philippe Poisson, L'Impromptu de campagne, which Johann Friedrich Jünger had translated to German in 1794,[1] as Die Komödie aus dem Stegreif (The improvised comedy).

[1] Die Opernprobe premiered on 20 January 1851 at the Oper Frankfurt in a double-bill with Friedrich Kaiser's comedy Junker und Knecht.

On the evening of 20 January he had planned to attend a performance of The Barber of Seville at the Königliches Opernhaus in Berlin with his friend Heinrich Otto Stotz [de].

Die Opernprobe was recorded in 1951, the 100th anniversary of the premiere, with singers including Helmut Krebs, Lisa Otto and the RIAS Kammerchor.

[1] A 1974 recording, with the choir and orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera conducted by Otmar Suitner, features Regina Marheineke, Nicolai Gedda, Klaus Hirte and Walter Berry, among others.