Der Waffenschmied

• Hans Stadinger, Weaponsmith ( bass)
• Marie, his daughter (Soprano)
• Count of Liebenau (baritone )
• George, his squire (Tenor)
• Knight Adelhof ( bass)
• Irmentraut, Marie's Mother (Alt )
• Brenner, innkeeper (Tenor)

The armourer is a comic opera in three acts by Albert Lortzingstraße. Again, he was - as with ( almost) all his works - his own librettist. He gets his inspiration was the comedy "Lovers and rival in a person " by Friedrich Wilhelm Ziegler. During his acting time Lortzingstraße had in this piece repeatedly played the part of the Earl of Liebenau, so it was the stuff very familiar. Goods in Ziegler's comedy characters or crocheted extremely coarse, so they act in Lortzings libretto much more natural and believable.

The premiere took place on May 31, 1846 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.

Action

Place and time of action: Worms in the 16th century.

Act I

Konrad, Count of Liebenau, and his squire clad Georg work in the workshop of the gunsmith Stadinger. As a disguised fellow Konrad, but also as lawful dressed Graf, he woos Marie, the daughter of the armourer. The wooing of the rightful Count is the armourer an eyesore. So he gives George, clad squires of the count, the order to drive out the count, should he decide to try in the absence of the armourer to recreate his daughter.

Count Konrad von Liebenau who is supposed to marry the rich Miss Katzenstein wants to finally know who really loves Marie Konrad, Count, or Konrad, the journeymen. When he appears in the Count 's robe in the evening, Marie tells him that her heart was already taken, and gives the Count jilted. Inwardly rejoicing and appearances while he must disappear as quickly as the armourer returns. After the " jealous " father all messed up and finally everything has calmed down, Mary appears at the door of journeymen Konrad, to wish him good night. This suggests, however, and does not answer. As she sees the Count in the garden. Now first doubts contact her if it was not it better to opt for the count ... (wealth alone does not do it on earth ... )

Second Act

Konrad, the journeyman, plays the jealous, because he had seen them with the Count. But Marie puts him way around the head. Then he kisses her ... Irmentraut worse, but silent, and she gets a kiss. This looks Georg, and there is a clamor and tumult. This attracted Stadinger appear and at the same time of the Knights Adelhof. He warns all before the Count Liebenau. In all this confusion, the armourer Konrad out of the house and determined to marry the journeyman George that Marie had ( but it need not be unpleasant to him ... ).

Transformation: In the vineyards outside the city Stadinger celebrates its 25th anniversary masterpiece. As Konrad appears with the trembling Marie. They report that the Count wanted to kidnap of Liebenau Marie and he had just taken from the Count. The half-drunken master swears. First, he wants to Marie stuck to the monastery (it must be uncomfortable ... but you do not ), then remembers but different. Marie to marry George, if the two like it or not.

Act Three

Stadinger has slept off his intoxication, and now wants to make report what had been going on the past few days. As much as one now persuades on Stadinger, his Marie he is not the journeymen Konrad. Konrad leaves the house. Soon after, you can hear a clamor and run. It is said that the Earl of Liebenau wants to kidnap Marie with violence. Since a letter comes from the Magistrate: for the sake of peace city Stadinger is to give the Konrad his daughter to wife. The old gunsmith is due to the higher order nothing else left: " ( I, too, was a young man with curly hair ... ) he sings, lost in memory. When he still recognizes that the journeyman Konrad and the Count of Liebenau one and the same person, he is both a blessing ( it does not have them but be uncomfortable ... ).

Music

The music of the armourer is still popular, and thus more lightweight than in Lortzings earlier works. In contrast to the Undine Lortzingstraße waived in the armourer entirely on the leitmotif technique.

As musical highlights were highlighted:

• Aria of Georg in the first act: It is indeed only once born
• Aria of Marie in the first act: 's course may not be so bad
• Duet between Marie and the count in the second act: You know that he loves you?
• Chorus in the second act, how glorious it is in the open
• Song with chorus in the second act: Was once a young Springinsfeld
• Aria of Marie in the third act: We poor, poor girl
• Song of Stadingers in the third act: I too was a young man with curly hair

Others

The beginning and the end of the first stanza of Stadingers song in the third act " I, too, was a young man with curly hair " and "That was a delicious time " have been included in the German quotation vocabulary. In this case, both Büchmann and the Duden appointed ( Volume 12: Quotes and sayings ) on Lortzingstraße as authors. Here, the song did not come from his pen; rather, it wrote his friend Philipp Jakob Düringer, who had also the song "Otherwise I play with scepter " to Lortzings opera " Zar und Zimmermann " contributed.