Hans Heiling

Heinrich August Marschner (1795 - 1861). Grosse romantische Oper in a prologue and three acts. 1832. Libretto by Eduard Devrient. First performance at the Hofoper, Berlin, on 24th May 1833.

Characters

In the underground cave of the earth spirits, Hans Heiling must leave his royal mother, giving up the throne for love of the mortal Anna. In spite of all pleas, he insists on giving up everything for mortal love. In his house Heiling keeps his magic-book and the casket of bridal jewels his mother had given him. Gertrude is eager for her daughter Anna to marry Heiling, but she is in love with the young huntsman Konrad. Anna opens the magic-book and is terrified when the pages turn of their own accord: she insists that Heiling destroy it, which he does, although this is the repository of his magic power. At a village celebration Anna wants to dance, which Heiling will not allow, and Konrad sings a song of the danger of mortals marrying earth spirits. His warning is strengthened in the second act by the spirits themselves in the deserted forest, to Anna's terror. She is comforted by Konrad, who carries her back to her mother. When Heiling offers her jewels, she rejects them, drawing back in horror and accusing him of being an earth spirit. In the third act Heiling seeks revenge, agreeing now to return to the kingdom of the earth spirits. The wedding of Konrad and Anna brings a game of blind man's buff, in which Anna takes hold of Heiling, to her horror. His revenge, however, is finally abandoned, when the Queen recalls the spirits and her son, who withdraw into the cliff that still bears the name of Hans Heiling.

Marschner's opera extends further the romantic magic of Weber's Der Freischütz (The Marksman). The story of Hans Heiling appears in various forms, particularly in the pages of the Brothers Grimm, and Devrient submitted his libretto to Mendelssohn, who found it not suitable for his use, in part because of a certain similarity, so it seemed, to the mood, at least, of Der Freischütz , an opera first staged in 1821, which had influenced his Die Hochzeit des Camacho (Camacho's Wedding) in 1827. Marschner's opera has a strong element of magic, with exciting music for the earth spirits and the necessary ingredient of the German forest, the huntsman and young village love.