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 second 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, are as follows:

Role	Performer
Achmet, former Bassa of Tunis	Example
Adelheit von Veltheim, a German woman	Example
Donna Velaska, a Spanish woman	Example
La Feuquiere, a French woman	Example
Miss Flovr, an English woman	Example
Donna Olivia, an Italian woman	Example
Franz von Veltheim	Example
Karl von Bingen, under the name Osman	Example
Mehmet, Guard of the Seraglio	Example
Slaves, Black People, Eunuchs

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 noblewomen who are being held captive in Middle Eastern harems, then later saved by their European fiancés. Großmann's libretto, however, includes several other abductees of various European backgrounds – and 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:

• 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