''Die Dafne'' (1627) is an opera. Its libretto was written by

Martin Opitz Martin Opitz von Boberfeld (23 December 1597 – 20 August 1639) was a German poet, regarded as the greatest of that nation during his lifetime. Biography Opitz was born in Bunzlau (Bolesławiec) in Lower Silesia, in the Principality of ...

(which survives) and its music was composed by

Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He ...

(which is lost). It has traditionally been regarded as the first

German opera Opera in German is that of the German-speaking countries, which include Germany, Austria, and the historic German states that pre-date those countries. German-language opera appeared remarkably quickly after the birth of opera itself in Italy. ...

, though it has also been proposed more recently that it was in fact a spoken

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

with inserted song and

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

numbers.

History

Development

Opitz was already a friend of Schütz and in all wrote twelve German

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance music, Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque music, Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The Polyphony, polyphoni ...

texts for him. In 1625 and 1626 Opitz visited the Dresden court, to work with Schütz on a ''Sing-Comoedie'' based on the model of

Jacopo Peri Jacopo Peri (20 August 156112 August 1633), known under the pseudonym Il Zazzerino, was an Italian composer and singer of the transitional period between the Renaissance and Baroque styles, and is often called the inventor of opera. He wrote th ...

's ''

Dafne ''Dafne'' is the earliest known work that, by modern standards, could be considered an opera. The libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini survives complete; the mostly lost music was completed by Jacopo Peri, but at least two of the six surviving fragment ...

''. Opitz rewrote the libretto after

Rinuccini Rinuccini is a surname, and may refer to: *Giovanni Battista Rinuccini (1592–1653), an Italian archbishop. *Ottavio Rinuccini Ottavio Rinuccini (20 January 1562 – 28 March 1621) was an Italian poet, courtier, and opera librettist at the end of ...

, translating it into Alexandrine verse, and his libretto was so highly regarded that it was later adapted back into Italian by later Italian librettists. Opitz and Schütz' were probably attracted by religious content of the work, rather than the purely pagan mythology of Dafne or Euridice. The electoral secretary to the Saxon Court, Johann Seusse also exerted influence on the project.

Premiere

The opera premiered in the banquet hall of Hartenfels Castle near

Torgau Torgau () is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen. Outside Germany, the town is best known as where on 25 April 1945, the United States and Soviet Armies forces first ...

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

during the marriage of Princess

Sophia Eleonore of Saxony Sophia Eleonore of Saxony (23 November 1609 – 2 June 1671) was a duchess of Saxony by birth and the landgravine of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1627 to 1661 through her marriage to Landgrave George II. She was the eldest surviving child of John ...

and George II of Hesse-Darmstadt on April 13, 1627. However, the opera received little attention in midst of other activities during the ceremony, including bear fights on April 7 and 10 and a wolf hunt on April 9.

Loss and Reconstruction

Schütz's score for the opera was lost sometime during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...

. However, German musicologist Reinhard Seehafer managed to reconstruct the opera in 2007.

Synopsis

The opera is divided into a prologue and five acts.

Prologue

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

delivers in seven stanzas of six verses the power of love.

Act I

Shepherds are terrorized by a monster in the countryside.

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...

arrives and slays the monster to the rejoice and celebration of the shepherds.

Act II

Cupid and his mother are engaged in bitter dialogue before being interrupted by the entrance of Apollo. Apollo mocks Cupid, and Cupid swears revenge. A choir of shepherds sings the glories of Cupid.

Act III

Cupid avenges himself by making Apollo fall in love with

Daphne Daphne (; ; el, Δάφνη, , ), a minor figure in Greek mythology, is a naiad, a variety of female nymph associated with fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of freshwater. There are several versions of the myth in whi ...

. Shepherds praise the benefits of hunting.

Act IV

Cupid celebrates his triumph with

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

. The shepherds sing of love.

Act V

Apollo chases Daphne until she calls upon the help of her father Peneus. Peneus turns Daphne into a laurel tree, eternally bestowing her leaves on poets. Shepherds and nymphs dance around the tree.

Modern scholarly reevaluation

Although long unquestioned as "the first German opera" the performance started no notable tradition in Germany, and Wolfram Steude (1991) made the controversial proposal that Dafne was in fact a spoken drama with inserted song and

numbers. Consequently recent publications such as the latest edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Opera are more cautious in attribution of the "first German opera" claim.

Other dramatic works by Schütz

Two other large scale sung dramas by Schütz are also lost: *''Orpheus und Eurydike'' (Dresden, 1638) — a ballet based on the myth about Orpheus and Eurydice, with libretto by August Buchner. *''Paris und Helena'' five-act Sing-Ballet to a libretto by David Schirmer. For the double wedding in Dresden of the brothers

Maurice, Duke of Saxe-Zeitz Maurice of Saxe-Zeitz (28 March 1619 – 4 December 1681) was a duke of Saxe-Zeitz and member of the House of Wettin. Born in Dresden, he was the youngest surviving son of John George I, Elector of Saxony, and his second wife Magdalene Sibylle of ...

and

Christian I, Duke of Saxe-Merseburg Christian I of Saxe-Merseburg (Dresden, 27 October 1615 – Merseburg, 18 October 1691), was the first duke of Saxe-Merseburg and a member of the House of Wettin. He was the sixth (third surviving) son of Johann Georg I, Elector of Saxony, an ...