About the work
Friederike is a three-act Singspiel with music by Franz Lehár and a libretto by Ludwig Herzer and Fritz Löhner-Beda. It premiered on 4 October 1928 at the Metropol-Theater in Berlin, with Richard Tauber as Goethe and Käthe Dorsch in the title role.
Plot
The work tells of the youthful romance between the aspiring poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friederike Brion, daughter of a pastor in Sesenheim, Alsace. When Goethe receives a call to the Weimar court in 1771, he chooses his literary career over Friederike; a reunion eight years later only confirms that their relationship has ended for good.
Cultural significance
With more dramatic music and no conventional happy ending, Friederike belongs to Lehár's late creative period. After early success, the Nazis banned the work, in part because of the Jewish background of librettists Herzer and Löhner-Beda and of lead performer Tauber.