BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, December 11, 1822

The Vienna Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Nr. 99 at 786 discusses the premiere at the Kärntnertor Theater of Libussa, a romantic opera in three acts with music by Conradin Kreutzer and libretto by Joseph Carl Bernard. Bernard was a friend of Beethoven and had been working for some years on a libretto for him to set to music, The Victory of the Cross. Beethoven had by this time pretty much lost interest in that oratorio, but Bernard will keep working on it into the next year.

Based on the life of a legendary Czech queen and the founder of Prague, the critic finds the opera entirely suited to romantic drama; shrouded in semi-darkness, “the poet only needs a very modest helping hand.” According to the review, the action does not get in the way of the power of musical art. The simplicity and clarity of the plot was commended as being particularly well suited to German sung drama.

Libussa would also be the subject of an 1848 tragedy by Franz Grillparzer and an 1881 opera by Bedřich Smetana.