About the work
Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung is a comic opera in four acts by Hermann Goetz to a libretto by Joseph Viktor Widmann, based on Shakespeare's comedy The Taming of the Shrew. Goetz composed the work between 1868 and 1873; it premiered on 11 October 1874 at the Grand Ducal Court and National Theatre in Mannheim.
Plot
Wealthy Baptista refuses to let his gentle daughter Bianca marry until her defiant elder sister Katharina has found a husband. Fortune-hunter Petruchio takes up the challenge, breaks Katharina's defiance through unconventional means, and ultimately wins her affection.
Cultural significance
The opera was an overwhelming success in Mannheim and moved on to the Vienna Court Opera in 1875; it remained Goetz's only completed stage work of note, as the composer, suffering from tuberculosis, died two years after the premiere without finishing his second opera, 'Francesca da Rimini'.