About the work
Der Schatzgräber is an opera in a prologue, four acts and an epilogue by Franz Schreker to his own libretto. It premiered on 21 January 1920 at the Frankfurt Opera House and became the high point of Schreker's career: within the following five years alone, the work received new productions at around 50 theatres.
Plot
In a fantastical, medieval-tinged German kingdom, the motherless innkeeper's daughter Els sends her lovers out to steal jewellery for her. The wandering minstrel Elis, whose lute magically detects hidden gold, falls for her and is caught between her intrigues and the court's greed for a stolen crown treasure. Only when Els recognises her guilt does the story find a reconciling turn.
Cultural significance
Richly orchestrated and shot through with Wagnerian echoes, the work treats the lust for gold as a cipher for the search for happiness and identity. After the Nazi ban on performances it sank deeper into obscurity than other Schreker operas and remained largely absent from the Schreker revival that began in the 1980s.