Das unterbrochene Opferfest
libretto by Franz Xaver Huber · premiered 1796 · at Burgtheater
Das unterbrochene Opferfest is a heroic-comic opera with spoken dialogue in two acts by Peter von Winter with a libretto by Franz Xaver Huber. The premiere took place on 14 June 1796 at the Theater am Kärntnertor Vienna. With Opferfest, which (based on novels by Jean-François Marmontel) effectively thematises the conflicts between Europeans and Incas in the 16th century, Winter became almost the only German opera composer of his generation, along with Mozart and Weigl, to achieve European fame. The fact that this happened with a libretto actually more typical of the Wiener Vorstadttheater with intermingled comic scenes and spoken dialogue is less surprising when one considers that Italian adaptations contained recomposed recitatives, some accompanied by string quartet, and in theatre practice everything was also gradually reduced to the serious sphere, which, however, deprives the work of original and by no means disturbing plot elements and musical numbers. The musical quality of the opera enjoyed great popularity and appeal among audiences in the first half of the 19th century, and as late as 1917 a new production was ventured in Leipzig.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Das unterbrochene Opferfest", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.