Otto Nicolai was born in Koenigsberg, Germany, on June 9, 1810. After
completing his music study with Zelter and Bernhard Klein, he came to
Paris in 1830 where he remained three years. In Berlin he completed
several works for orchestra, and some for chorus. In 1834 he went to
Italy where he was organist in the Prussian Embassy at Rome and became
interested in opera. From 1837 to 1838 he was principal conductor at the
Kaerthnerthor Theater in Vienna. Then he returned to Italy to devote
himself to the writing of operas, the first of which, _Rosmonda
d’Inghilterra_ was a failure when produced in Turin in 1838. His second
opera, however, was a major success when first given in Turin in 1840:
_Il Templario_ based on Sir Walter Scott’s _Ivanhoe_; it was produced in
Naples and Vienna. In 1841 Nicolai came to Vienna to serve for six years
as Kapellmeister to the court. During this period, in 1842, he helped to
found the renowned Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1847 he came to
Berlin to become conductor of the Domchor. It was here that he completed
the work upon which his reputation rests, the comic opera, _The Merry
Wives of Windsor_ (_Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor_). He died in Berlin
of an apoplectic stroke on May 11, 1849, only two months after the
première performance of his famous comic opera.
_The Merry Wives of Windsor_ (_Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor_) is
Nicolai’s only opera to survive; and its overture is his only work for
orchestra which retains its popularity. The opera received a highly
successful première in Berlin on March 8, 1849. Its libretto, by Hermann
Salomon Mosenthal, is based on Shakespeare’s comedy and follows that
play with only minor modifications. Falstaff’s cronies (Bardolph, Pistol
and Nym) are omitted; only slight reference is made to the love of Anne
and Fenton; and considerable attention is paid to Falstaff’s comical
amatory overtures to Mistresses Ford and Page.
The overture opens with a slow introduction in which a flowing melody is
given against a high G in the violins. This melody is repeated by
several different sections of the orchestra, then treated in imitation.
The main part of the overture is made up of two vivacious melodies, the
second of which, in the violins, is intended to depict Mistress Page.
The development of both themes is in a gay mood, with a robust passage
in F minor representing Falstaff. The overture concludes with an
animated coda.
From the opera itself come three melodious vocal selections, prominent
in all orchestral potpourris: Falstaff’s drinking song, a long time
favorite of German bassos, “_Als Bueblein klein_”; Fenton’s serenade to
Anne Page, “_Horch, die Lerche singt in Haim_”; and Mistress Page’s
third-act ballad of Herne the Hunter.