The Battle of Fehrbellin is imminent. The Elector of Brandenburg, his retainers and his niece, Princess Natalie, are searching for General Prince Friedrich von Homburg. They find him sleepwalking in the garden of the palace, dreaming of his military victories and of marriage to Natalie. But in the ensuing battle, he disobeys his Elector’s orders, following his intuition instead. Although the army of Brandenburg emerges victorious from the fight, the Prince is sentenced to death for his disobedience. He pleads anxiously for his life, at which the Elector puts him to the test: If he considers the judgement of his court martial to be unjust, then he may go free. The Prince now has to decide between his feelings and the law. Ultimately, he accepts his death sentence with composure. Impressed by Homburg’s inner stature, the Elector is now also able to follow his own feelings and pardon him.
Hans Werner Henze and Ingeborg Bachmann hesitated for a long time before setting to work on Der Prinz von Homburg in 1958. This was because the original play by Heinrich von Kleist had been highly exploited by the National Socialists, who had interpreted it as a patriotic Prussian drama glorifying war. But it was precisely this misuse that had to be counteracted decisively. In her reworking of the text, Bachmann reduced the military tone of Kleist’s language. She also emphasized both the love story between the Prince and Natalie and the play’s conflict between sentiment and reasons of state. This contrast also permeates Henze’s composition. His juxtaposition of different tone colours and different formal and stylistic elements makes the duality between the world of dreams and the world as it really is directly tangible. Henze and Bachmann adopt a clear stance that situates them between these two poles. According to Henze, their opera is ‘about glorifying a dreamer and about destroying the concept of the classical hero; it’s against a blind, unimaginative application of the law and glorifies human kindness’.
David Treffinger · Translation: Chris Walton
