About the work
With „Der Rubin“, Eugen d’Albert presented his first opera in 1893, a musical fairy tale in two acts after Friedrich Hebbel's fairy tale of the same name, with a libretto d’Albert wrote himself. It premiered on 12 October 1893 at the Karlsruhe court theatre.
Plot
The poor fisherman's son Asaf falls out with his friend Hakam, who has stolen, while a vizier announces that the Caliph has promised his crown to whoever brings back the vanished Princess Bedura. Enthralled by a ruby at the jeweller Soliman's shop, Asaf seizes it and is condemned to death; at the last moment the mysterious Irad spirits him away into the underworld. There he meets Bedura, turned to stone, who comes to love him but may not tell him how to free her — he must find the way himself.
Cultural significance
On the occasion of the premiere, Richard Strauss is said to have written to d’Albert that writing operas was not hard, but performing them very much was; indeed, compared with d’Albert's later stage successes, „Der Rubin“ remained no more than a respectable succès d'estime and is almost never performed today.