August von Kotzebue, Librettist

Abstract

H ardly any modem playwright has been as influential on the course of European drama as August von Kotzebue (1761-1819). Author of over 230 theatre pieces, Kotzebue was by far Germany's most popular and prolific dramatist during the period often referred to as the Goethezeit.' Indeed, between 1791 and 1817 Kotzebue's plays enjoyed twice as many performances in Goethe's own theatre in Weimar as those of Schiller, and over four times as many as Goethe's own dramas. On other large stages the statistics were similar.2 In fact, Benno von Wiese estimates that from 1795 to 1825 Kotzebue's plays made up about a quarter of the repertoire in all German theatres.3 Despite Kotzebue's large output and his frequent performances, his frank appeal to popular taste and his personal manner were enough to prevent most nineteenth-century critics from evaluating his forty volumes of dramatic works in an unprejudiced manner. Yet if Kotzebue the dramatist has now begun to receive the scholarly attention he deserves, Kotzebue the librettist is practically unknown.4 Although these librettos were frequently set, they are not works that would catch the attention of either literary or musical researchers trying to discover superior products of the German musical stage during the period between the death of Mozart and the premiere of Der Freischiitz. Yet Kotzebue's librettos represent the standard, normal fare of German musical theatres of their time, and therefore deserve to be better known.