gemischter Chor (Maria und ihr Genius)

Giacomo Meyerbeer’s forgotten treasures

Edited by musicians for musicians

Director: Andrea Chudak

Sheet music: Max Doehlemann

mixed choir, soprano solo, tenor solo, bass solo, piano

Giacomo Meyer composed the cantata Maria und ihr Genius for the silver wedding anniversary celebration of royal highnesses Prince and Princess Carl of Prussia on May 26, 1 852. He began working on it on April 30, continuing until the day of its premiere.

It was performed at Glienicke Palace in the presence of the Tsar and Tsaress of Russia, the royal couple, the Princess of Prussia, and other royalty. Coloratura soprano Leopoldine Margarethe Tuczek-Herrenburg sang the solo part, accompanied by the Berlin Domchor under Kapellmeister August Neithardt. At the time, she had engagements at the Royal Court Opera House in Berlin, not only as Vielka in Meyerbeer’s opera Ein Feldlager in Schlesien, but also as Frau Fluth in the premiere of Otto Nicolai’s opera The Merry Wives of Windsor. The tenor part was performed by Eduard Mantius, whom King Friedrich Wilhelm III had appointed singer at the Royal Court Opera House in Berlin in 1830. He impressed audiences with his sonorous voice and his acting abilities as Tamino in Mozart’s Magic Flute, soon becoming famous far beyond Berlin.

The cantata’s lyrics were written by Theodor Goltdammer (1801-1872), who studied law in Heidelberg and Berlin and first worked as a lawyer in Breslau, Coslin, and Frankfurt/Oder. He took a position with the Ministry of Justice in 1839 and began serving as a judge two years later. Besides his legal writings, he penned numerous poems (Preußenlieder), novellas, and plays.

The copies of the music, for example the one Meyerbeer sent to Grand Duke Carl Alexander of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach on June 1, 1852, are testament to the work’s positive reception at its premiere. Meyerbeer prepared the manuscript for publication through the summer of 1852, and it was published the same year by Schlesinger in Berlin; Wilhelm Hensel was responsible for its design.

This work was out of print and considered lost.