Hans Heiling by Heinrich Marschner

Last week we heard Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, an opera that deals with Titania and Oberon, King and Queen of the Fairies. This week, in a far different opera, we've got another royal pair: the King and Queen of the Gnomes. The title character, Hans Heiling, is the King. He rules an underground world of gnomes, who refer to themselves as "Earth Spirits." The Queen is Hans's mother instead of his wife, and she's got her hands full with Hans. He's a truly spirited Earth Spirit, to say the least.

It's possible that you've never heard of this opera or its composer. But Heinrich Marschner is regarded as the most important composer of German opera between Weber and Wagner, and while Hans Heiling isn't heard much in this country, it's still a popular show in Europe. It comes to us from the Italian island of Sardinia, in a production from the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, starring soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci and baritone Markus Werba.

Conductor: Ranato Palumbo Cast: Anna Caterina Antonacci (Anna); Markus Werba (Hans Heiling); Herbert Lippert (Conrad); Gabriele Fontana (The Queen); Cornelia Wulkopf (Gertrude); Nicola Ebau (Stephan)

Web Resources

• Teatro Lirico, Cagliari (site in Italian)
• Soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci
• Baritone Markus Werba
• Composer Heinrich Marschner
• Libretto in German

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