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Die Zwillingsbrüder

Music by Franz Schubert · libretto by Georg von Hofmann · premiered 1820 · at Theater am Kärntnertor

Die Zwillingsbrüder (The Twin Brothers, D. 647) is a one-act Singspiel (sometimes also described as a Posse mit Gesang) composed by Franz Schubert in 1819 on a libretto by Georg Ernst von Hofmann. Die Zwillingsbrüder was first performed at the Kärntnertortheater on June 14, 1820. Hofmann based the libretto on the 1818 French vaudeville Les deux Valentin (The Two Valentines) by Marc-Antoine Madeleine Désaugiers and Michel-Joseph Gentil de Chavagnac (1770–1846). Die Zwillingsbrüder, like Schubert's other operatic works, met with limited success both at the work's inception and over time. Critics attribute this to the weakness of the libretto as well as to a mismatch between the lightness of the subject matter and the refined nature of Schubert's music. In this work, Schubert's music often approaches the style of Mozart, evoking for instance Die Zauberflöte.

Text from the Wikipedia article "Die Zwillingsbrüder", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the Composer

Franz Peter Schubert (; German: [fʁants ˈpeːtɐ ˈʃuːbɐt]; 31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a vast oeuvre of more than 1,000 compositions, including over 600 Lieder (art songs in German) and other vocal works, seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of piano and chamber music. Among these are the songs "Gretchen am Spinnrade", "Erlkönig" and "Ave Maria"; the Trout Quintet; the Symphony No. 8 in B minor (Unfinished); the Symphony No. 9 in C major (The Great); the String Quartet No. 14 in D minor (Death and the Maiden); the String…

Text from the Wikipedia article "Franz Schubert", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Other Operas by Franz Schubert