About the work
Die stumme Serenade (The Silent Serenade) is a comedy with music in two acts by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, his last work for the stage. Originally intended for a Broadway production in 1946, Korngold reworked it into a German-language version after those plans fell through; Radio Vienna broadcast an abridged concert version in 1951, and the full staged premiere was conducted at the Stadttheater Dortmund on 10 November 1954.
Plot
In Naples in 1820, the fashion designer Andrea Coclé is arrested on suspicion of breaking into the garden of the actress Silvia Lombardi at night and of involvement in an attempt on the prime minister's life. Under interrogation, Coclé admits only to having secretly serenaded her with a song nobody heard — a "silent serenade". After a palace revolution he briefly rises to head of state himself, before renouncing politics and marrying Silvia.
Cultural significance
The 1954 Dortmund premiere delighted audiences but was panned by the critics, and the work then vanished from the stage for 53 years. Korngold had originally planned the piece for Broadway, but rejected the Shubert brothers' demand for control over the libretto, so no Broadway version was ever staged; the English-language version was not premiered until 2013, in Toronto, and its US premiere followed only in 2026, given by Mannes Opera in New York.