• Hans Pfitzner. Musikdrama in three acts. 1893.
• Libretto by James Grun and the composer, after the poem by the 12th-century poet Hartmann von Aue.
• First performance at the Stadttheater, Mainz, on 2nd April 1895.

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CHARACTERS

Heinrich, a German knight	tenor
Dietrich, one of his vassals	baritone
Hilde, his wife	soprano
Agnes, their young daughter	soprano
Physician, a monk of Salerno	bass

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Heinrich is sick and, as Dietrich reports after visiting the Physician, can only be cured by the blood of a young virgin. Agnes pleads with her parents to allow her to be the one to heal their lord. In the monastery at Salerno she is about to be sacrificed, when Heinrich miraculously regains his strength, breaks into the sacrificial chamber and prevents her death. All welcome the miracle.

Hans Pfitzner’s opera is akin, in subject and treatment, to other works of the period, not least, in its medieval setting and imagery, to the work of Siegfried Wagner. Hartmann von Aue’s poem has Heinrich, an admirable character, suffer from leprosy. The cure is similarly effected, leading to his marriage to the girl who has been willing to save him. The original poem is also the basis of a play by Gerhart Hauptmann, written in 1902.