About the work
Die Kathrin is Erich Wolfgang Korngold's last opera, a folk opera in three acts to a libretto by Ernst Décsey. Its premiere, planned for March 1938 at the Vienna State Opera, was cancelled after the Anschluss because of Korngold's Jewish ancestry; the work finally received its premiere on 7 October 1939 under Fritz Busch at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, with Isa Quensel in the title role.
Plot
In a garrison town in southern France, the servant girl Kathrin falls in love with the soldier and singer François. After a night together, François is posted to Algeria while Kathrin is left pregnant; complications involving a nightclub owner and a murder Kathrin did not commit land François in prison. Five years later the two are reunited in the Swiss mountains, where Kathrin has meanwhile raised their son.
Cultural significance
The planned 1938 Vienna premiere fell victim to Nazi cultural policy, so Korngold's last opera opened instead in neutral Stockholm, sung in Swedish. Die Kathrin did not receive its belated United States premiere until 2022, as part of a Korngold festival at the University of Chicago.