|
Register Now!
|
|
Register now for vtap for the fastest and easiest way to watch web video on your mobile device!
|
|
Martha oder Der Markt zu Richmond (Martha or The Richmond Market) is an opera in four acts by Friedrich von Flotow to a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Riese, based on the ballet Lady Henriette by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges.
For the Grand Opéra in Paris, Flotow had composed the first act of a ballet, Harriette, ou la servante de Greenwiche, for a ballet text by Jules H. Vernoy and Marquis St. George, for Adèle Dumilâtre. The time available for the ballet composition was short, so the second and third acts were assigned, respectively, to Robert Bergmüller and Édouard Deldevez. The ballet was written for a French dançeuse and a French audience. The opera Martha is an adaptation of this ballet composition.
According to Gustav Kobbé Martha, though written by a native of Teutendorf, and first performed in Vienna, is unlike German music but is French in character and elegance, so he classifies it as a French opera. He points out Flotow was French in his musical training, and that both plot and score were French in origin, effectively in the tradition of Auber. (Flotow studied composition in Paris under Reicha, 1827-1830, and having left on account of the July revolution returned there from 1835-1848, and again from 1863-1868.)






