»Albert Lortzing und das Verhältnis von Komik und Ernst in Opern der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts«

In the organizer's words:

Symposium at the Institute of Musicology at Leipzig University as part of the festival "Lortzing 26"

as part of "Lortzing 26"

The stage works of Albert Lortzing are often generally assigned to the comic and thus supposedly lighter genre. However, his operatic oeuvre also includes several works that belong to more serious genre traditions and address central problems of his time, such as social grievances in "Regina" or the discussion about the existence of a human soul in "Undine". Of course, these works also contain comic moments, while conversely Lortzing's more light-hearted pieces such as "Zar und Zimmermann" or "Der Waffenschmied" occasionally strike a serious tone.

The musicological symposium will examine various aspects of this "mixed" operatic style from an interdisciplinary, comparative perspective. The aim is to explore this area of tension using various examples from the perspectives of libretto, composition and staging history. The focus will be on operas by Albert Lortzing, which will be contrasted with other pieces of German, French and Italian provenance from the first half of the 19th century.

Thursday, April 30, 2026, 2 to 6 p.m. | Concert foyer of the opera house

Friday, May 1, 2026, 9:30 am to 1 pm & 3 pm to 6 pm | Leipzig University

Saturday, May 2, 2026, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Leipzig University