Background
Shortly after Meyerbeer arrived in Berlin in 1842 the opera house was destroyed by a fire. Meyerbeer was invited to compose a brand new work for the festive occasion of the reopening of the opera house. The reigning Prussian king at the time was Frederick William IV, of the house of Hohenzollern. What better theme for this opera than a work celebrating the king's famous ancestor, Frederick the Great? But there was one problem; members of the ruling Hohenzollern family could not be depicted on stage. Therefore Frederick, whilst the nominal subject of the opera, remaons unseen, but is, however, heard playing the flute in the background.
The selection of the librettist was a political issue. Meyerbeer wanted his trusted librettist Eugène Scribe, but the idea of a Frenchman writing the libretto for what was to be the Prussian national opera was unacceptable. The king wanted Ludwig Rellstab, a critic who was Meyerbeer's enemy, in the hopes that this would reconcile the two men. Meyerbeer, an astute diplomat, found a solution: Scribe was to provide the text, in secret, agreeing never to claim ownership, and Rellstab would translate it. Thus, the libretto was credited to the latter, and it was only recently that its true authoer was discovered.
Read more about this topic: Ein Feldlager In Schlesien
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