The premiere of "Der Barbier von Bagdad", 15 December 1858
An organised hissing campaign wrecked a premiere, and Weimar lost Liszt as a result.
On 15 December 1858 the Weimar court theatre gave the first performance of Peter Cornelius's comic opera "Der Barbier von Bagdad". Liszt conducted; Cornelius had dedicated the work to him. It is the premiere a Weimar audience deliberately destroyed.
The hissing was organised
The reference literature is blunt about what happened: an opposition unlike anything in the annals of Weimar set itself against the applause from the very beginning, with persistent hissing.[1] This was not an audience disliking a piece. It was a faction — Liszt's opponents and the enemies of the New German School he stood for — using a first night to make a point, and the theatre's own Intendant, Franz von Dingelstedt, is named as its leader.
What it cost
After the débâcle Liszt gave up his positions as opera director and Hofkapellmeister. The opera was taken off and was never staged again in Cornelius's lifetime; Cornelius himself left Weimar.[1] The Staatskapelle's own history does not tell this story, but its explanation of why Liszt withdrew fits it exactly — too many stones, it says, were put in the way of his far-reaching ideas.[2] Ten years of premieres nobody else would risk ended in one evening of deliberate noise.
Sources
- Der Barbier von Bagdad — Wikipedia (de), retrieved 29 August 2026
- Die Staatskapelle Weimar — das Orchester — Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
Historical figures
Historical figures
1824–1874 • composer • poet
The premiere of his opera, and the evening that decided the rest of his relationship with Weimar.
1811–1886 • composer • pianist • conductor
He conducted the premiere of a work dedicated to him, and gave up his Weimar offices after the evening collapsed into organised hissing.
Historic sites
Historic sites
Theaterplatz 2, 99423 Weimar
The house, then the Hoftheater, in the building that preceded the present one — its own Intendant is named as leading the opposition.
Period
1832–1918
The end of the period's boldest decade: after this evening Weimar stopped being the stage that took the risks nobody else would.