About the work
Through-composed opera in two acts with a prologue and epilogue by Max von Schillings, libretto by Beatrice Dovsky, first performed on 26 September 1915 at the Neues Hoftheater in Stuttgart. Schillings wrote the work within a few weeks in 1913 in a tower near Gürzenich.
Plot
In a framing scene, a married couple visits a former Florentine palazzo, now a convent, and hears the story of Lisa del Giocondo. In 1492, the young Mona Lisa, married to the much older and wealthy Francesco, rekindles her love for Giovanni during a carnival celebration; when Francesco finds out, he locks his rival in his pearl vault and throws away the key. The next morning Mona Lisa retrieves the key from the river and uses it to lock Francesco in instead, causing his death, while she herself dies of grief.
Cultural significance
'Mona Lisa' became Schillings's greatest stage success and remained so even as his other, strongly Wagner-influenced operas quickly disappeared from the repertoire. The huge orchestra, with 13 woodwind and 14 brass instruments, harps, celesta and organ, along with passages for double chorus, reflects his late-Romantic musical ideal; the tower near Gürzenich where the opera was composed is still known today as the 'Mona-Lisa-Turm'.