Peter Cornelius was born in Mayence, Germany, on December 24, 1824.
After studying theory with Dehn in Berlin from 1845 to 1852 he became a
passionate advocate of the “music of the future” as promulgated by Liszt
and Wagner. It was Liszt who introduced Cornelius’ comic opera, _The
Barber of Bagdad_, in Weimar in 1858; Liszt was finally forced to resign
his conducting post in Weimar because of the hostility of the audiences
to this masterwork. From 1865 on Cornelius lived in Munich where he was
reader to King Ludwig II and professor of harmony at the Royal
Conservatory. He died in Mayence on October 26, 1874. He was a composer
of operas and songs, but is today remembered almost exclusively for _The
Barber of Bagdad_, one of the most delightful comic operas in the German
repertory.
_The Barber of Bagdad_ (_Der Barbier von Bagdad_)—whose world première
took place in Weimar on December 15, 1858, Liszt conducting—has an
amusing text written by the composer himself. The plot concerns a
rendezvous between Nureddin and Margiana, daughter of the Caliph;
Nureddin’s friend, the barber of Bagdad, stands guard. This amatory
adventure is brightened by a series of episodes and accidents in which
Nureddin (mistaking his friend for the Caliph) seeks refuge in a chest
in which he almost suffocates. All turns out well in the end. The Caliph
offers his parental blessings to Nureddin and Margiana.
The overture is famous. Its main melody is a chromatic Oriental subject
which represents the barber. Another significant episode is the theme
with which the overture opens: a tender melody for woodwind and muted
strings. These two ideas, and several subsidiary ones derived from the
opera score, are developed with considerable good humor and merriment
until a dramatic conclusion is realized in the coda.