Due to large number of works, some of schuberts works remain largely unknown.

His stage works are an

example of these works.

Franz Schubert's last complete opera, the three-act "heroisches-romantisches" opera

Fierabras, D. 796, has suffered a life of neglect, as has the of Schubert's other theater-
music.

With exception of Rosamunde (long a darling of the concert hall).

The opera was Composed in 1823, and being commissioned by The Kärntnertor Theater.
Schubert and Carl maria von weber where commissioned. The commission was intended to
increase the amount of german opera literature. While von webers opera named Euryanthe was
premiered, it was unsucceful, as rossinis operas was brought to Vienna at the same time. This
meant that the theatre did not stage Schuberts Fierabrass, Kupelwieser's departure trom te
theatre companyFierabras was not staged until 1897 at Karlsruhe . but this was not a
full performance, but a shortnened version of it. The first full performances didn't come
until the 1980s as such, this opera remains largely unknown.

Whether Fierabras deserves to be so ignored is a matter upon which even those who
have dedicated whole lives to Schubert remain undecided. One of the obvious reasons
for schu berts failiures as a stage music comp0oser is the librettos. Kupelweiser's wrote
the libretto of this opera and it is generally agreed to be very weak and amateur.

While only a few minor revisions were required for Josef Kupelwieser's Fierrabras, the libretto
was evidently written in full knowledge of what was considered unacceptable and the political
climate may thus be held accountable for some of its dramatic deficiencies

Emma, the daughter of King Karl (Charlemagne, from the German name for Charlemagne, Karl der
Große), is in love with Eginhard. Their love must be kept secret since Karl does not approve. Karl's
knights, led by Roland, have defeated the Moors and captured Fierrabras, the son of the Moorish
prince Boland. Karl does not imprison Fierrabras. When they are brought to Karl's castle, Fierrabras
spies Emma, and recognizes her as someone he fell in love with in Rome. Eginhard and Emma
meet in the garden at night, but are interrupted by Fierrabras. The lovers plead with Fierrabras to
protect Eginhard from Karl. Fierrabras agrees, and Eginhard makes his escape. The king
approaches, and, thinking Fierrabras is trying to kidnap Emma, has him thrown in chains. As the act
ends, Eginhard and the knights are preparing to leave.

Act 2
Eginhard (without clarifying the matter concerning Emma and Fierrabras) has been sent to Boland
with Roland and Karl's other knights for peace talks. The Moors surprise Eginhard, capture him, and
bring him to the Moorish castle, where Boland and his daughter Florinda are concerned over
Fierrabras' fate. Eginhard informs them of Fierrabras' imprisonment. The rest of Karl's knights arrive
for the peace talks. Boland, upset over Fierrabras' imprisonment, takes them prisoner and condemns
them to death. Among the knights, his daughter Florinda recognizes Roland, (with whom she fell in
love while in Rome) and decides to try to help them. She manages to free Eginhard, and, after a
brief interlude with Roland, frees the knights from the castle prison. The knights, after battle in which
Roland is captured, are returned to the prison, where Boland is upset over Florinda's behavior.

Act 3
Emma, who is waiting for Eginhard's return, confesses to her father that Fierrabras is innocent, and
that she and Eginhard are in love. Karl frees Fierrabras, and they leave with Eginhard to go to the
Moorish castle to free the imprisoned knights. The knights are being led to the execution pyre.
Florinda pleads with Boland to spare Roland. In anger, Boland says that if she loves Roland, she
can die with him. Karl, Eginhard, and Fierrabras arrive just in time to stop the executions, and
convince Boland to release the knights. Karl and Boland make peace and allow Roland and Florinda
to marry, as well as Eginhard and Emma. Fierrabras joins Karl's knights.

Schubertnevertheless responded with music that is at times superbly inspired.

- Schubert never had the chance to see any of his full-scale operas staged, and
so was deprived of learning first-hand how to write for the theater --

Schubert

I have endeavoured to restore music to its true role, which is to serve the poetry through its very
expression and to follow the development of the storyline without interrupting the action or suffocating
it with a proliferation of superfluous ornamentation. gluck

No people has been so slow and so uncertain as the German in determining its own specific art forms.
Both the Italians and the French have evolved a form of opera in which they move freely and naturally.
This is not true of the Germans, whose peculiarity it has been to adopt what seems best in other
schools, after much study and steady development; but the matter goes deeper with them other nations
concern themselves chiefly with the sensuous satisfaction of isolated moments, the German demands a
self-sufficient work of art, in which all the parts make up a beautiful and unified whole

Talk about singspiel

"[Singspiel] by no means excludes occasional recitative in place of the spoken dialogue, but the moment the
music helps to develop the dramatic narrative we have to do with Opera and not with Singspiel.

two Singspiels, Die Zwillingsbruder and Die Verschworenen,

The concept of the Biedermeier is most directly relevant to this opera. As we shall see, the themes of
the plot include a longing for peace, a desire for escape, a valorisation of home, family, fatherland etc., a
sense of limitation or 'tameness', and an uneasy resolution of dramatic themes for the sake of an
apparently comfortable closure.
Other Biedermeier elements abound, including the generally simple trajectory of social stability —»
minor conflict -> return of harmony, the presence of beneficent patriarchal figures, and a strong feeling
of longing for peace and home which runs through the whole work.

Several of the most salient features of Fierrabras relate this work to the emergent field of German
Romantic Opera. The extensive use of melodrama in this work relates Fierrabras to Freischutz and
Fidelio, whose Wolfsschlucht and dungeon scenes are the loci classici of melodrama in early German
Romantic opera.4 (There are also some early examples of Schubert's use of the technique in Des Teufels
Lustschloss and Die vierjahrige Posten but these are far more limited in scope.) For the first time in a
true opera, Schubert's overture engages with the thematic material of the opera. A figure associated
with the character of Fierrabras himself, Leitmotiv, threads its way through much of the work. There
are also, however, other reminiscence figures throughout opera. As previously observed, Alfonso only
used such devices sparingly, and indeed the significance of these is often unclear or possibly even
accidental. Furthermore, many of the larger choral scenes belong in the tradition of German opera from
Spohr to early Wagner; as well as suggesting parallels with Haydn's Seasons, the chorus of spinning
women which opens Act I , for example, is remarkably prophetic of that of Flying Dutchman. While the
extensive use of through-composed musical narrative extends back to Gluck (c.f. Iphigenie en Tauride
I), as we have discussed in the chapter on Alfonso und Estrella it is also an important recurrent feature
of Romantic opera and can be found in Weber, Meyerbeer, Schumann, Marschner and, of course,
Wagner.`

Perhaps the most frequently observed problem of the opera is the conspicuous absence of the title
figure, Fierrabras himself.

Although Fierrabras rarely speaks or sings himself in this scene, it is quite clear that this scene is about
him. He is the object of Roland's narration and the observing subject of pious Emma and beneficent Karl,
both of whom he admires. It might put us in mind of a similar set of events from Die schone Mullerin,
those of the fifth song 'Am Feirabend'.