Opera Plots I - MDC Faculty Home Pages

47. LORLE
Opera in Three Acts By Alban Förster
Libretto adapted from Auerbach 's celebrated village story by H. Schefsky
First Produced Dresden, July, 1891
Chief Characters Lorle, Barbel, Countess de Matran, R emhardt, Walther, The Lindenhost, The
Count de Matran, Balder
THE scene opens in a village of the Black Forest, where the prosperous Lindenhost endeavours to
persuade his fair daughter, Lorle, to wed her peasant admirer, Balder. Lorle, however, refuses, her
heart having been given to an artist, Reinhardt, who has been painting in the village, she herself
having served him as a model. Balder is presently disposed of by being carried away, very
unwillingly, by the soldiery as a recruit; and next night, being St John's Eve, Lorle and her friend,
Barbel, resolve to learn the fate of their love by means of an old village custom, which consists of
weaving a wreath of bluebells and grasses in the forest at midnight, then throwing it up into the
branches of an old oak tree, at the same moment calling out the name of the desired lover the
result being that if the wreath is caught in the boughs, the maiden will gain her heart's desire; but
the reverse will be the case if the flowers fall back into her hands. The girls proceed to carry out
the spell, their little play being watched by two hidden cavaliers, who are none other than
Reinhardt, who has come back to seek his rustic sweetheart, accompanied by his friend, Walther;
and as Lorle throws up her bluebell wreath, the young artist deftly catches it, and, clasping the
beautiful maiden in his arms, he declares his love, whilst Walther makes advances to the pretty
Barbel. Act 2 takes place at Reinhardt's studio in the city. He is now married to Lorle, but is
already tired of his rustic bride, his attention having been diverted from her by a former
sweetheart, the unscrupulous Countess de Matran, under whose fatal sway he has fallen. Complications
arise by Lorle receiving a visit from her village friends, Barbel and Balder, who are
discovered with her when the Count and Countess come to examine a portrait of the latter, which
Reinhardt has been commissioned to paint; and her husband falls more and more under the sway
of the Countess, to whom, at a grand fête, he actually declares his passion. The scene is witnessed
by Lorle, who, after this final proof of her husband's faithlessness, retires, heartbroken, to her
native village. Walther and Barbel are now married and happy; but poor Lorle droops more and
more, until her friends see that she is dying. She entreats them to take her once more to the forest,
when Midsummer Eve returns, to take farewell of the spot where her lover first declared his
passion; and thither, in deep sorrow, her father conducts her, her village friends following. Here, to
her great joy, she is met by her still beloved Reinhardt, who, stricken with remorse, has hurried to
the village to entreat her pardon, and to beg her to return to him; and the pair are reconciled. But
Lorle's strength is now utterly exhausted by the sorrow she has passed through, and, after
receiving her repentant husband's eager caresses, she utters a sigh of happy contentment, and
expires in his arms.
48. THE MAIDENS OF SCHILDA
Opera Comique in Three Acts By Alban Förster
Libretto By Rudolf Bunge