About the work
Der arme Heinrich is a music drama in three acts by Hans Pfitzner to a libretto by his childhood friend James Grun, based on the Middle High German verse narrative by Hartmann von Aue. It premiered on 2 April 1895 at the Stadttheater in Mainz, where Pfitzner was working unpaid as a conductor at the time.
Plot
According to the legend, the knight Heinrich, stricken with leprosy, can only be healed through the heart’s blood of a maiden who sacrifices herself for him. Fourteen-year-old Agnes is willing to die in his place and already lies bound on the sacrificial table when, at the last moment, Heinrich renounces his own rescue — and it is precisely this renunciation that miraculously heals him.
Cultural significance
“Der arme Heinrich” marked the 25-year-old Pfitzner’s debut as an opera composer; after a successful premiere in Mainz it was quickly taken up elsewhere but then largely faded from view, and today counts among the composer’s more rarely staged early works.