About the work
Barbara von Tisenhusen is an opera in three acts by Eduard Tubin, with a libretto by Jaan Kross. Tubin, who had fled the Soviet occupation of Estonia for Sweden in 1944, completed the score by 1968; the premiere took place on 4 December 1969 at the Estonia Theatre in Tallinn, which the composer travelled to specially from his Swedish exile.
Plot
The plot follows the historically documented Livonian noblewoman Barbara von Tisenhusen, who around 1550 falls in love with the commoner secretary Franz Bonnius on her stepparents' estate. Because a union between nobility and commoner defies the era's class laws, her brothers thwart the couple's planned escape and have Barbara drowned in winter in the frozen Lake Võrtsjärv.
Cultural significance
The story derives from a 1578 chronicle by the Baltic historian Balthasar Rüssow and was reworked in literature, notably by the poet Marie Under, before Jaan Kross adapted it as a libretto for Tubin. Its critique of Baltic-German noble class arrogance allowed the opera a performance in Soviet-occupied Estonia despite Tubin's exile, making it one of the best-known Estonian operas.