About the work
Chamber opera by Wolfgang Rihm to a libretto by Michael Fröhling, drawing on Georg Büchner's unfinished 1836 novella "Lenz" as well as poems and letters connected to the historical poet Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz. Rihm composed the work in 1977–78, aged 25; it premiered on 8 March 1979 at the Hamburg State Opera.
Plot
Across 13 scenes, the opera follows three weeks the mentally ill poet Lenz spends with pastor Oberlin in Alsace in the winter of 1778. Alongside Lenz, Oberlin and their mutual friend Kaufmann, a six-voice vocal ensemble sings music that only Lenz can hear, expressing his advancing hallucinations.
Cultural significance
Scored for just three singers and eleven instrumentalists, "Jakob Lenz" is among the most frequently performed German chamber operas written after 1945; Rihm received the City of Bonn's Beethoven Prize for it in 1980. The work gave crucial impetus to the chamber opera as a genre in the late 20th century.