About the work
Violanta is a tragic opera in one act by Erich Wolfgang Korngold to a libretto by Hans Müller-Einigen. Bruno Walter conducted the premiere on 28 March 1916 at the Munich Court Theatre, on a double bill with Korngold's equally short opera Der Ring des Polykrates.
Plot
In Renaissance Venice, Violanta, wife of the captain Simone Trovai, plots revenge on Prince Alfonso, who seduced her sister Nerina and drove her to suicide. During carnival she lures Alfonso to her house so that Simone can kill him, but instead falls in love with him herself. When Simone strikes, Violanta throws herself between them and dies in his place.
Cultural significance
With Violanta, whose music Korngold had written while still seventeen, he made his debut as an opera composer and established his reputation as the wonder child of Vienna's music scene. Too short to fill an evening on its own, the one-act work was always paired with Der Ring des Polykrates; in 2016 London's Museum of Music History marked the centenary of both premieres.