Erwin und Elmire is a singspiel, described as a Schauspiel mit Gesang, in two acts by the German composer Johann André, with a libretto by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, after Oliver Goldsmith's ballad of Angelica and Edwin, The Hermit, in chapter 8 of his sentimental novel The Vicar of Wakefield.
André was the first to set Goethe's text in 1775, but he was closely followed by Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel whose own Erwin und Elmire was performed in 1776.
Versions followed by Carl David Stegmann (Hamburg, 1776), Ernst Wilhelm Wolf (Weimar, 1785) and Karl Christian Agthe (Ballenstedt, 1785), also Johann Friedrich Reichardt (concert performance, Berlin, 1793) who based his work on a later revised text by Goethe.
A public production by the Döbbelin Company appeared in Berlin at the Theater in der Behrenstraße on 17 July 1775.
Elmire is distressed because she believes her cold behaviour towards Erwin has caused him to run away.