(IV) Dramatic music.

In no other arena of Schubert's artistic life did he encounter more frustration than in dramatic music. At first blush, the sense of drama evinced in songs like Erlkönig, not to mention his dazzling lyrical gift, would seem to have marked Schubert as an ideal composer of dramatic music. But like Haydn, Schubert lacked the instinct for long-range planning and cumulative dramatic development that came so naturally to a Mozart or a Verdi. Perhaps he could have learnt through experience, as exemplified by his growth in the realm of symphonic music. But the circumstances for a positive learning curve could not have been more disadvantageous during Schubert's lifetime. The two principal Viennese theatres, the Burgtheater and the Kärntnertortheater (both owned and controlled by the emperor), were in decline. The Burgtheater had ceased producing opera altogether, while the Kärntnertortheater faced financial difficulties. Nor did the three suburban theatres offer more opportunity. The enthusiasm for the operas of Rossini upon their introduction in Vienna in 1816 had turned by 1821 into what the Viennese called the ‘Rossini Rummel’ (Rossini craze). Strict censorship introduced by Metternich forbade any subjects challenging the imperial authority. Finally, the paucity of opportunities had drained Vienna of virtually all of its professional librettists. In all it was an extremely poor environment for any composer of German opera.

Schubert's enthusiasm for dramatic music nonetheless overcame any objective assessment of his chances for success. Opera, in particular, remained the surest path in Vienna (and throughout most of Europe) to fame and fortune. Between 1811 and 1827 Schubert began no fewer than 16 full-scale dramatic works (not including the two fine numbers added to Hérold's Das Zauberglöckchen and the incidental music to Helmina von Chézy's Rosamunde), completing half of them. Half of those he began are Singspiele growing out of the same tradition that produced Mozart's Entführung and Zauberflöte. Schubert's first two efforts, Der Spiegelritter (d11) and Des Teufels Lustschloss (d84), were composed before he was 18. Based on existing librettos by August von Kotzebue, a respected and successful Viennese dramatist, their magical plots (statues that move, seduction by an Amazon) stimulated Schubert's Romantic imagination only sporadically, as in the texture-based night music that opens Act 2 of d84. In 1815, the same year that produced some 160 lieder, the teenaged Schubert commenced no fewer than four Singspiele, completing at least three of them. The single act of Der vierjährige Posten (d190), Theodor Körner's improbable tale of a sentry who gets left behind by his comrades, required only 12 days to complete. Its spirited music includes a quartet in the form of a round that may have been inspired by Beethoven's ‘Mir ist so wunderbar’ from Fidelio. The next, and more serious, work, Fernando (d220), includes a heroine Eleanora who seeks and finds her lost husband, and whose name probably harks back to Beethoven's opera as well. Its one act was probably tossed off in a couple of weeks but includes a good example of storm music and a moving prayer. The one surviving act of the three-act Claudine von Villa Bella (d239) holds out little promise; if ever completed, the two final acts have disappeared without a trace. The libretto for the final member of the quartet of 1815 Singspiele, Die Freunde von Salamanka (d326), was penned by Schubert's lugubrious friend Mayrhofer. Its tortured tale of male-dominated matchmaking offered Schubert few opportunities for dramatic conflict, witnessed by its tedious, repetitive phrase structure.

In May 1816 Schubert embarked on his first opera on a classical theme, Die Bürgschaft (d435), based on a story about rebellion against the despotism of the King of Syracuse. Probably based on the ballad by Schiller, the anonymous libretto offered a number of opportunities for dramatic development, none of which Schubert responded to. His desire for operatic experience seems to have obliterated any sense of self-criticism that might have prompted him to abort the project well before the middle of the third act. This undisputed failure may account for the interval of almost three years before Schubert's next operatic project, the Singspiel Die Zwillingsbrüder (d647). Adapted by Georg von Hofmann from a French comedy, the story entangles the fortunes of two identical twins with that of two lovers, Lieschen and Anton. It holds a special place as the only opera of Schubert's to be performed in his lifetime (six times at the Kärntnertortheater, starting on 14 June 1820). Perhaps more than in any other of his operas, Schubert mastered (with more than a nod to Mozart) the pacing and character development of ensembles, from duets to quartets. Even more promising musically are the eight complete and four sketched numbers of Adrast (d137), probably begun in the autumn of 1819. Presumably based on Mayrhofer's adaptation of Herodotus's account of King Croesus, it contains some of Schubert's most audacious writing. Why he abandoned such an intriguing project is a mystery, although it may have been to accept a commission in the summer of 1820 from the Theater an der Wien for the score to the melodrama Die Zauberharfe (d644). Almost half of its 13 numbers employ the technique of melodrama, with the voice speaking over an orchestral background. Schubert appears to have been quite stimulated by the orchestral freedom implied by this style. Without the lost libretto the full context for Schubert's score is difficult to see, but for originality its harmonic language can withstand comparison with any achievements to the middle of the century and beyond.

In the autumn of 1820 Schubert once again took on an operatic project (Sacontala, d701) subverted by a convoluted libretto, this one from the theologian J.P. Neumann; the composer was soon forced to abandon it. In spite of critical acclaim, the two fine numbers that Schubert contributed to Hérold's Das Zauberglöckchen in June 1821 doubtless did little to enhance his reputation. In the hopes of gaining the recognition he yearned for, Schubert finally tackled in the autumn of 1821 a full-scale grand opera (i.e. without spoken dialogue). Alfonso und Estrella (d732), on a barely plausible plot blending medieval chivalry and romantic nostalgia (influenced by the Walter Scott craze that was sweeping across Europe) by Schubert's confidant Franz von Schober, occupied Schubert for over five months. In spite of Schubert's best efforts, Schober's material (involving the usurpation of an 8th-century Spanish king) is too static and contains too few opportunities for ensembles that advance the drama. In spite of some interesting experiments with accompanied recitative, the work moves in slow motion. After completion, composer and librettist touted it around unsuccessfully. With some relief Schubert may have returned in 1823 to the medium of Singspiel in Die Verschworenen (d787). Castelli's loose adaptation of Aristophanes' Lysistrata makes considerable use of both choruses and ensembles, and Schubert responded with some of his most varied music and pointed characterization. This final effort in Singspiel probably holds the stage better than any of Schubert's other operas.

After Die Verschworenen Schubert plunged almost immediately into some 300 bars of Rüdiger (d791), only to leapfrog quickly into another grand opera, Fierrabras (d796). Based again on a libretto by a friend of Schubert's (Josef Kupelwieser), most of the opera's action takes place in the spoken dialogue between the musical items. In spite of several of the finest operatic numbers Schubert would pen, including a serenade, an impassioned rage aria for Fierrabras's daughter Florinda, the ravishing duet ‘Weit über Glanz and Erdenschimmer’ and several powerful sections of melodrama, Fierrabras cannot hold the stage. It was the last opera that Schubert would finish, although he continued to hunt for suitable librettos for the rest of his life. In the summer of 1827 yet another Schubert friend, Eduard von Bauernfeld, provided the composer with operatic fodder. Schubert sketched all but the final two numbers of the two-act Der Graf von Gleichen (d918) but could not bring himself to finish it, although he salvaged ideas from the first-act trio (no.3) for the first movement of his unfinished D major Symphony (d936a). There is considerable irony in the circumstance that Schubert's most acclaimed piece of dramatic music, Rosamunde (d797), was assembled hastily for a play at least as convoluted as any of his most problematic librettos. Helmina von Chézy's Rosamunde, Fürstin von Zypern was pilloried by the critics, but Schubert's ten numbers quickly took on a life of their own. With the composer given days rather than weeks to prepare the music, more than half of the numbers are recycled: for example, the overture is taken from Alfonso und Estrella, the Entr'acte in B (no.6) is based on the song Der Leidende, and we cannot rule out the possibility that the Entr'acte in B minor (no.1) – a fully fledged sonata movement – was originally the finale for the unfinished Symphony in B minor. Given the speed with which Schubert mastered other genres, and given the promise scattered among his operatic failures, his lack of opportunity to learn from actual performances, and the absence of a Da Ponte or a Boito as a mentor, sentenced him to an undeserved fate.

Schubert, Franz, §2: Works