Adelheit von Veltheim

SeiN 10

Schauspiel mit Gesang, premiered in Frankfurt am Main, 23 September 1780

Libretto by Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann

Overview

Neefe and Großmann wrote this extensive four-act Singspiel for their troupe's guest season at the 1780 Autumn Fair at Frankfurt's Theater in der Junghof, their second short residence that year. In its first performance at the Bonn court a few weeks later, Adelheit was given pride of place on 11 October during the pomp around Archduke Maximilian Franz's election as Coadjutor (i.e. Maximilian Friedrich's successor as Elector of Cologne). The Archduke was duly impressed, and "honored Großmann with a precious gold watch and 50 new Louis d'or to divide among the company."(footnote: )

The dramatis personae, and the actors and singers from Großmann's company who created the roles,(footnote: ) are as follows:

Role	Premiere Cast
Achmet, Bassa of Tunis	Heinrich Christian Pleißner
Adelheit von Veltheim, a German woman	Anna Christiane Josephi
Signora Olivia, an Italian woman	Susanna Neefe
Donna Velaska, a Spanish woman	Maria Franziska Helmuth
Miss Flovr, an English woman	Henriette Huber
Demoiselle La Feuquiere, a French woman	Christiane Brandt
Mehmet, overseer of the Seraglio	Johann Friedrich Helmuth
Franz von Veltheim	Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann
Karl von Bingen, under the name Osman	Franz Brandt
Adolph von Posen	Anton Steiger
Turkish Women of the Seraglio, White and Black Slaves, Janissaries, German Knights	unnamed

The libretto is often compared to Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's contemporaneous Belmont und Constanze, which Mozart set as Die Entführung aus dem Serail two years later. Both deal with abducted European women held captive in Middle Eastern harems, who then are saved by their European fiancés. Großmann's libretto, however, deals explicitly with noblewomen. The Bassa's harem includes several other abductees of various European backgrounds – along with the stereotypical personality traits to match: the delicate and haughty La Feuquiere, the stoic and caustic Donna Velaska, the spirited and bossy Donna Olivia, and the proper and diplomatic Miss Flovr.

Sources

Libretto:

• [Frankfurt, 1780]: Washington, Library of Congress, ML48 [S11734]
  • Although no place or date is mentioned, the order and wording of the dramatis personae matches that of the Frankfurt playbill, including the character of Adolph von Posen, who is missing from the other libretti. On pp. 131–136, there is an extensive list of changes headed "Veränderungen für das B.. Theater: Nach welchen Donna Velaska gar nicht, und Miss Flovr nur in den Chören singt" (Changes for the [Bonn] theater, in which Donna Velaska does not sing at all, and Miss Flovr only in the choruses.)
• Leipzig: Dyck, 1781: Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Slg.Her 1825; and Washington, Library of Congress, ML 48 [S7068]
• Cologne: Imhof, 1784: Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, P.o.germ. 524