The 240th Anniversary of Ignaz Holzbauer's Death (1711-1783)

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Ignaz Holzbauer (1711-1783)—one of the most important representative of the Mannheim School—is particularly remembered for his German-language opera Günther von Schwarzburg. Two years after the premiere in Mannheim in 1777, he composed an Italian opera, La morte di Didone (1779), based on a libretto by Pietro Metastasio. A revision as Der Tod der Dido, with German words by Anton Klein, was undertaken just one year later.

The singspiel Der Tod der Dido was brought out of obscurity through a modern edition from Carus Verlag (Ignaz Holzbauer, Der Tod der Dido. Singspiel in einem Akt. Musik der Mannheimer Hofkapelle, vol. 3, edited by Bärbel Pelker, Stuttgart 1999) and a staging in Austria at the Teatro Barocco with Bernd Roger Bienert, director (August 2022). A recording on YouTube from the theater offers an ideal opportunity to get to know this work.

The only handwritten source of this singspiel (RISM ID no. 900011106; RISM Catalog | RISM Online) is preserved in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. (US-Wc).

Category: Musical anniversaries