Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Christian August Vulpius. Circe: Oper mit der Musik von Pasquale Anfossi. Ed. Waltraud Maierhofer. Hannover-Laatzen: Wehrhahn Verlag, 2007. 58 pp.

Summary

This is a delightful book; number thirteen of twenty-four titles in the Theaterreihe series, presenting original music and libretti. This edition of a translation by Goethe and Vulpius offers a bi-lingual text for the charming light opera, prefaced by a thoroughly researched introduction. The cover features a lovely color reproduction of Circe and Odysseus painted by Angelika Kauffmann. There are also photocopies of significant arias and accurate variants, which will be helpful to scholars and interested readers alike. The footnotes provide additional scope, including particularly interesting information about the Duchess Anna Amalia and her role in bringing this playful Circe story to Weimar.

Professor Maierhofer's introduction offers many perspectives on the opera buffa, including illustrations that were copied before the fire in Weimar that destroyed numerous important documents. She begins with a chapter detailing the ways in which this light-hearted rendering of the Circe story traveled from Rome to Weimar. She then discusses “Die Autographen und die Weimarer Aufführung” (9–13). A further interesting part of the introduction is her discussion of Vulpius, Goethe's brother-in-law, whom she judges to be a man of indifferent gifts, “zweifelhaften, wenn nicht niederen Rangs” (13).

Maierhofer deals with the opera's content, addresses the merits of the translation, and illustrates differences between the original Italian and the German versions. These are among the most interesting remarks in the text. To reproduce one of many, she asserts: “Nuancen der Wortwahl in Goethes Übersetzung der Gesänge [lassen sich] so lesen, dass Circe mehr böse und leidend erscheint als im Original, weniger ein bedauernswertes Opfer ihres eigenen Begehrens” (25).

She offers a final segment entitled “Der erweiterte Text (das Düsseldorfer Manuskript): Nationacharakter und Situationskomik” (25–27),” which nicely broadens and completes the introduction.

The most remarkable aspects of the comparison are Maierhofer's observations about the play's denouement. “Wie der Karneval, in dem die Oper uraufgeführt wurde, setzt die Farce die Klassenschranken ausser Kraft. Nur im komischen Genre durfte ein mächtiger Charakter aus dem Mythos parodistisch behandelt werden. Nur in einer Farce darf die Dienerin die mächtige Circe überlisten. Die Zauberin wird verspottet und verlassen. Sie endet ohne Liebhaber, während die Dienerin Lindora und die beiden Fremden [both of whom are noblemen] entkommen” (20).