About the work
Die Harmonie der Welt is Paul Hindemith's last major opera, a portrait of the astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler to a libretto by the composer himself. Hindemith had already distilled the symphony of the same name from the material in 1951 before completing the opera in 1956/57. He conducted the premiere himself on 11 August 1957 at Munich's Prinzregententheater as part of the Munich Opera Festival.
Plot
The opera follows Kepler between 1608 and 1630 through Prague, Württemberg, Linz and Sagan: his work at the court of Emperor Rudolf II, the witch trial against his mother Katharina, his marriage to Susanna, and his service to the general Wallenstein. At the end, after Kepler's death, the characters appear as celestial bodies in a musical vision of the harmony of the spheres.
Cultural significance
The work gathers up Hindemith's lifelong engagement with the Pythagorean idea of a cosmic world harmony and closes with a large-scale passacaglia. It is regarded as the summation of his late output for the opera stage.