Peter Cornelius
Biography
Cornelius belongs to Weimar for one night, and it went badly. His comic opera "Der Barbier von Bagdad" had its first performance here on 15 December 1858, and the evening ended his connection with the town and Liszt's with the court theatre.
One of the composers Liszt fought for
The Staatskapelle's own history puts him in a short and telling list. Liszt, it says, initiated premieres of numerous contemporary works — often against enormous resistance — by colleagues whose modernity was still contested: Berlioz, Cornelius, Saint-Saëns. Being on that list is the whole of Cornelius's standing in Weimar. He was not a court appointee or a resident master; he was one of the risks the Kapellmeister took.
The night it went wrong, and after, 1858–1874
He dedicated "Der Barbier von Bagdad" to Liszt, and Liszt conducted the premiere. It was met by organised hissing from the opening bars — the reference literature calls it an opposition unlike anything in the annals of Weimar — mounted by Liszt's enemies and led, it names, by the theatre's own Intendant. The opera was taken off and never staged again in Cornelius's lifetime. He left Weimar. He died in Mainz, the town he was born in, sixteen years later.
Questions visitors ask
- What is Peter Cornelius's connection to Weimar?
- His comic opera "Der Barbier von Bagdad" had its premiere here on 15 December 1858, conducted by Franz Liszt — the evening that ended both Cornelius's connection with the town and Liszt's with the court theatre.
- What happened at the premiere of Der Barbier von Bagdad?
- It was met by organised hissing from the opening bars, led by the theatre's own Intendant. The opera was withdrawn and never staged again in Cornelius's lifetime.
- What was Liszt's relationship to Cornelius?
- Liszt championed his work against resistance, alongside composers like Berlioz and Saint-Saëns, and gave up his Weimar offices after the disastrous premiere.
- Can I visit where Cornelius's opera premiered?
- The National Theatre stands on the same site, on the Theaterplatz — though the current 1908 building replaced the one Cornelius's opera was staged in.
Notable Works & Achievements
Der Barbier von Bagdad (premiered Weimar, 1858)
Connected Places in Weimar
Theaterplatz 2, 99423 Weimar
The house, then the Hoftheater, that premiered his opera in 1858 and then withdrew it — in the building before the present one.
Historical Context
He is the period's clearest casualty: a composer the town's boldest decade brought in, and its factions drove out.
Goethe died in 1832, and Weimar had to work out what a town does after its golden age. It decided to keep going, and the answer took eighty-six years — the era the Klassik Stiftung Weimar calls the Silver Age. Music replaced literature as the thing Weimar was for, two royal patrons paid for it, and the schools they founded outlived the monarchy that funded them.
Read more about this period →Quick Facts
1824
1874
German
In Weimar's history
In Weimar's history
An organised hissing campaign wrecked a premiere, and Weimar lost Liszt as a result.
The premiere of his opera, and the evening that decided the rest of his relationship with Weimar.