Der Vampyr (Lindpaintner)
Der Vampyr (The Vampire) is an opera (designated as a Romantische Oper) in three acts by Peter Josef von Lindpaintner. The German libretto by Cäsar Max Hegel was based on a work by Heinrich Ludwig Ritter, based in turn on a French melodrama by Charles Nodier, Pierre Carmouche and Achille de Jouffroy, ultimately traceable to the short story The Vampyre (1819) by John Polidori.
Other early 19th-century operas on the same theme were Silvestro de Palma's I vampiri (1812), Martin-Joseph Mengal's Le vampire (1826), and Heinrich Marschner's Der Vampyr of the same year as Lindpaintner's opera (1828).
Performance history
The first performance took place at the Hoftheater in Stuttgart on 21 September 1828. It proved the most successful of the composer's operas.
Lindpaintner made a revised version of the opera in 1850, when he put recitatives in the place of the original spoken dialogue.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 21 September 1828 (Conductor: -) |
|---|---|---|
| Ignerand, Count Port d'Amour | bass | |
| Isolde, Ignerand's daughter | soprano | |
| Hypolit, Count Damartin, Isolde's bridegroom | tenor | |
| Count Aubri, the vampire | bass | |
| Balbine, Isolde's maid | mezzo-soprano | |
| Etienne, gardener to Port d'Amour | bass | |
| Morton | bass | |
| Lorette, Morton's daughter | soprano | |
| Lavigne, her bridegroom | tenor |
Synopsis
The scene of the action is in the south of France (not Scotland), though in general it follows the same story as Marschner's Der Vampyr.
Sources
- Amadeus Almanac accessed 6 November 2008
- Brown, Clive (1992), 'Vampyr, Der' in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London) ISBN 0-333-73432-7
