About the work
One-act Singspiel by Giacomo Meyerbeer to a libretto by Johann Emanuel Veith, composed in 1814 to celebrate the victory over Napoleon and the return of the Quadriga, seized for Paris in 1806, to the Brandenburg Gate. The planned performance at Berlin's Royal National Theatre never took place because the score, written in just two weeks, arrived too late and the Prussian king had already left for Vienna.
Plot
The work combines the ceremonial unveiling of the returned Quadriga with a love story between Wilhelm and Luise set against a patriotic backdrop; since the spoken dialogue has not survived, the plot can only be reconstructed from the surviving song texts.
Cultural significance
As Meyerbeer's own interest in this work, tailored so closely to Prussian nationalism, waned after the failed premiere date, the score remained unperformed for almost two centuries. Its stage premiere did not take place until 5 September 1991 — Meyerbeer's 200th birthday — in the chamber music hall of Berlin's Schauspielhaus.