Silvana (opera)

Carl Maria von Weber
Operas Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn (1802) Silvana (1810) Abu Hassan (1811) Der Freischütz (1821) Euryanthe (1823) Oberon (1826) Die drei Pintos (completed by Gustav Mahler, 1888)
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Silvana is an opera by Carl Maria von Weber, first performed in Frankfurt am Main on 16 September 1810. The libretto, by Franz Carl Hiemer, is a reworking of an earlier, unsuccessful opera by Weber, Das Waldmädchen. Weber also reused music from the same piece in Silvana.

Weber used a melody from a discarded aria for the opera to compose the popular Seven Variations on a theme from Silvana for clarinet and piano. He used the same melody for the theme-and-variations first movement of his Sonata no. 5 in A major (from the Six sonates progressives for piano and violin obbligato, J 99-104).

Roles

• Dryada (contralto)
• Graf Gerold (tenor)
• Guntram von Bornhofen (baritone)
• Ratto (bass)
• Rheingraf Boland von Sternberg (baritone)
• Silvana (soprano)

Recordings

• Complete recording of the opera, conducted by Gerhard Markson (on the Marco Polo label). Markson has also recorded, for the same label, the only complete recording of Weber's first complete opera, Peter Schmoll. The overture, unique among Weber's operas in that it is not based on tunes from different numbers of the opera, is the least frequently performed among his opera overtures. It is a fine work, nevertheless, and Neeme Järvi has made an excellent recording of it in his collection of Weber overtures (on Chandos).

References

Sources

• Bandur, Markus (Ed.), Silvana. Romantic Opera in three Acts. Text by Franz Carl Hiemer (with Supplements by F. G. Toll) (WeV C.5) (= Carl Maria von Weber Complete Works, Series III, Vol. 3a, 3b, 3c), Mainz: Schott, 2011. [3 vol.] ISBN 978-3-7957-9344-9, ISBN 978-3-7957-9447-7, ISBN 978-3-7957-9448-4
• Holden, Amanda, (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc., 2001 ISBN 0-14-029312-4