Der Taucher

Opera Rarity Although Conradin Kreutzer was one of the undisputed audience favorites of the Vormärz period, his theatrical works - despite their undeniable merits such as gripping lyrical melodies and original, colorful orchestration - have unfortunately almost completely disappeared from the repertoire of opera houses and even from the catalogs of record labels today. Only his most successful opera, Das Nachtlager von Grenada (The Camp at Granada) from 1834, is perhaps still known today among opera connoisseurs. His romantic opera Der Taucher is based on the famous ballad by Friedrich Schiller, which inspired Kreutzer even three times to write a theatrical piece: in 1808/1809 in Vienna and in 1813 for the court theater in Stuttgart. Many years after the premiere in Stuttgart in 1813, he fundamentally reworked the piece for Vienna, among other things by making the roles for the star singers there more virtuosic. In this definitive version, the piece became one of Kreutzer's first major successes before Das Nachtlager von Grenada, although the early Stuttgart version, which was certainly not inferior, was pushed into the background.