The author Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was interested in music, wanted originally to become a musician, and added Amadeus to his names in honour of Mozart. He composed one successful opera in 1816, Undine, which became a major influence on the development of German Romantic opera.[1] He wrote his own libretto for the earlier work Liebe und Eifersucht, based on August Wilhelm Schlegel's translation of a play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, La banda y la flor (The Scarf and the Flower).[2] Hoffmann composed the opera in 1807.[1]
The opera was not performed in Hoffmann's lifetime. It was first published by Schott in 1999.[1] and premiered at the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele[3] on 27 July 2008, at the Forum am Schlosspark in Ludwigsburg, in a coproduction with the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich,[2][4] where it was first performed on 27 September that year.[4][5]Michael Hofstetter, who staged a series of revivals of rarely played operas, conducted the Ludwigsburg Festival orchestra and singers from the Gärtnerplatztheater in performances[4][6] and a recording.[2] The first production in Switzerland was mounted in Zurich in 2016 by the Free Opera Company, with dialogues in more modern German and a reduced orchestra, conducted by Emmanuel Siffert.[1]
The plot is marked by confusions in relationships, caused partly by disguise and by misunderstanding of signs and tokens of love.[2][7] The music was described as inspired by Mozart, "everywhere marked by understanding and craftsmanship – and nowhere distinguished by genius."[2]