About the work
Die Verschworenen (also known under the title "Der häusliche Krieg") is a one-act Singspiel by Franz Schubert to a libretto by Ignaz Franz Castelli, transplanting the plot of Aristophanes' "Lysistrata" into a setting of medieval knighthood. Schubert composed the work in April 1823; out of consideration for Viennese censorship, which found the word "conspiracy" too sensitive, the title "Der häusliche Krieg" was used for a time. It was not performed during Schubert's lifetime; after a concert premiere in Vienna in March 1861, the staged premiere followed on 29 August 1861 in Frankfurt am Main.
Plot
While the knights are away on crusade, the countess and the other women of the castle resolve to withhold their affection from the returning men until they renounce warfare. Suspicions of the women's secret infidelity spark a web of confusion that ultimately resolves into reconciliation and the triumph of domestic peace over the spirit of war.
Cultural significance
Its Lysistrata-based plot was taken up by German-American communities in New York during the Civil War, where it carried different meanings for different audiences: a message of peace, a link to the old homeland, and, under conductor Friedrich Adolf Sorge, even an allegory for the organized labor movement.