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''Genoveva'', Op. 81 is an opera in four acts by Robert Schumann in the genre of German Romanticism with a libretto by Robert Reinick and the composer. The only opera Schumann ever wrote, it received its first performance on 25 June 1850 at the Stadttheater in Leipzig, with the composer conducting. It received only three performances during the premiere, and the negative criticism it received in the press played a decisive role in Schumann's decision to not write a second opera. ''Genoveva'' is based on the story of Genevieve of Brabant, a medieval legend set in the 8th century that is reputedly based on the 13th century life of Marie of Brabant, wife of Louis II, Duke of Bavaria. The story gained in popularity during the first half of the 19th century, primarily in Germany through various theatrical settings. Two of the settings from this period, Ludwig Tieck's play ''Leben und Tod der heiligen Genoveva'' (''Life and Death of Saint Genoveva'') and Friedrich Hebbel's play ''Genoveva'', served as the basis for the opera's libretto. The plot of the opera has several similarities with Wagner's ''Lohengrin'', which was composed during the same period as Schuman was writing ''Genoveva''. ''Genoveva'' has never won a large popular audience, but it continues to be revived at regular intervals throughout the world and has been recorded several times. ==Composition history== Schumann expressed the desire to write an opera as early as 1842, and was fascinated by the possibilities of operas based on traditional German legends. His notebooks from this period show that, among others, Schumann considered the stories of the ''Nibelungen'', ''Lohengrin'' and ''Till Eulenspiegel'' to be good candidates for settings in German opera. Schumann began work on ''Genoveva'' toward the end of a period of intense depression. In the early 1840s, discouraged both by the greater public esteem enjoyed by his wife, Clara Schumann, a leading pianist as well as a composer with a high-profile career as a touring virtuoso, and by the fact that he was not offered the directorship of the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Schumann's depression intensified. In 1844, he and Clara moved to Dresden, where his depression eventually moderated and he began work on a number of compositions, including ''Genoveva''. While in Dresden, Schumann encountered Wagner, whose discouraging comments on Schumann's libretto for ''Genoveva'' strained relations between the two composers. For his part, however, Schumann came to admire the dramatic impact of Wagner's operas, and the influence of Wagner's music worked its way into the score for ''Genoveva''. Indeed, some of the musical techniques used in the opera, such as the fluid through-composed music (i.e. there are no recitatives) and lack of purely virtuosic vocal moments, are Schumann's personal interpretations and adaptations of Wagner's compositional methods. Although the then recently constructed Dresden Semperoper house declined to stage ''Genoveva'', much to Schumann's fury, he eventually secured a staging in Leipzig. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Genoveva」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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