About the work
Grand Romantic opera in three acts by Heinrich Marschner to a libretto by Wilhelm August Wohlbrück, first performed on 22 December 1829 at the Stadttheater Leipzig. Wohlbrück adapted Walter Scott's novel 'Ivanhoe' (1819) for the opera stage via several intermediate dramatic versions.
Plot
The wounded knight Ivanhoe and the Jewish woman Rebecca love each other, but Rebecca is abducted by Norman knights and pursued by the Templar Brian de Bois-Guilbert. Accused of sorcery before an ecclesiastical court, she is defended by Ivanhoe in a trial by combat against Guilbert. After Ivanhoe's victory, the returning King Richard the Lionheart exposes the Templars as troublemakers and restores order.
Cultural significance
Alongside 'Der Vampyr' and 'Hans Heiling', the opera ranks among Marschner's three most successful stage works and was performed at numerous German theatres during his lifetime. Its subject after Scott matched the 1820s taste for exotic medieval chivalric material and historical costume opera.