Baron of Schoenau.
Margaretha, his daughter.
Count of Wildenstein.
Countess Wildenstein, the Baron's cousin.
Damian, the Count's son by a second marriage.
Werner Kirchoff, the "trumpeter."
Conradin, a trooper.
[Heralds, youths, maidens, peasants, school children, students,
troopers, etc.]
The scene is laid in Säkkingen, on the Rhine; time, the year 1650, near
the close of the Thirty Years' War.
Few operas have had the advantage of such an excellent book as Nessler's
"Trumpeter of Säkkingen," and few light operas have had their stories so
legitimately and skilfully illustrated with music. The text is based upon
the metrical romance of Victor von Scheffel's "Trumpeter Von Säkkingen,"
known and admired all over Germany, which tells the story of the young
Werner and the fair Margaretha, their romantic wooing and final union.
The time is near the close of the Thirty Years' War, and the hero is
Werner Kirchoff, a handsome, dashing young student, who, with others of
his comrades, is expelled from the University of Heidelberg because of
their frequent carousals. They join a body of troopers, Werner in the
capacity of a trumpeter, and go with them to Säkkingen. While there he
has the good fortune to protect Margaretha, on a saint's fête day, from
the rudeness of some Hauenstein peasants who are ready for a revolt
against the Baron von Schoenau, her father. Margaretha, who is in company
with the Countess Wildenstein, a cousin of the Baron, who has separated
from her husband, gratefully gives Werner a forget-me-not. The Countess
inquires his name of his trooper comrade, Conradin, and is struck with
his resemblance to her son who had been carried off by gypsies in his
childhood. In the next scene the Baron has received a letter from Count
Wildenstein, in which he states that his second wife has died, that he
wishes to settle the misunderstanding with his first wife, the Countess,
and proposes Damian, his son by the second marriage, as a husband for
Margaretha,--a proposal which the Baron promptly accepts. When Margaretha
enters and tells of her adventures with Werner, the Baron regrets that
his old trumpeter, Rassmann, is not alive to summon assistance from the
city in case of attack by the peasants. Margaretha tells him of Werner,
and notwithstanding the Countess' objections, he gives the position to
him.
The second act opens with a love scene between Werner and Margaretha,
which is discovered by the Countess, who at once informs the Baron. When
Werner asks him for the hand of Margaretha, he not only refuses it, but
orders him to leave the castle. Werner takes his farewell of Margaretha,
and leaves for his old position with the troopers in the city. Meanwhile
the Count of Wildenstein arrives with Damian, but he makes no impression
upon Margaretha notwithstanding the Baron's favor.
In the last act the dénouement comes quickly. The peasants attack the
castle, and the Baron calls upon Damian to head his retainers and go out
to meet the mob. He proves himself, however, an arrant coward, and in the
midst of his irresolution Werner rides up at the head of his troopers,
performs prodigies of valor, and saves the inmates of the castle. A
birthmark upon his arm reveals him as the long-lost son of the Countess,
and nothing now stands in the way of Margaretha's and Werner's felicity.
In the prelude and first act the most noticeable numbers are the
students' and troopers' choruses, written in the best German style--the
prelude indeed is almost entirely choral; the peasants' choruses and
lively dances on St. Fridolin's Day; the characteristic growl of the
Baron over his gout and the unreasonable peasants; and the charming lyric
sung by Margaretha, "How Proud and Grand his Bearing." The most
conspicuous numbers in the second act are a lyric sung by Werner, "On
Shore I played me a Merry Tune"; the love scene between Margaretha and
Werner, "Sun, has thy Light not grown in Splendor?" the dramatic
quintette, "Must so soon the Sunshine vanish?" and Werner's sentimental
and beautiful farewell, "Oh, it is sad that in this Life below." The
principal numbers of the third act are Margaretha's song, "My Love rode
out to the Wide, Wide World"; the May song, "There comes a Youth of Sweet
Renown"; the pantomime and dance composing a May idyll; the duet for
Margaretha and Werner, "True Love, I give thee Greeting"; and the ringing
mass chorus, "Faithful Love and Trumpet blowing," which closes the opera.