Proserpina

Goethe is one of the best-known and most beloved poets in music history, with myriad settings and publications devoted to his poetry. And yet there remains an unexplored aspect of his career: his surprisingly significant role in 19th century melodrama. This score, the first edition of Eberwein's setting of Goethe's melodrama, Proserpina, offers an unprecedented examination of Goethe's text and overturns the accepted image of the artist as unmusical. Carl Eberwein's setting is highly dramatic in impact and beautifully orchestrated. Eberwein's music for Proserpina was written under Goethe's supervision and according to his wishes; the selfless striving of the young composer to follow the poet's concrete instructions is everywhere apparent and it is the nearest thing we have to a 'composition by Goethe'. This is the first publication to represent the artistic intentions of both artists in a modern orchestral score, with piano reduction, German/English text and critical commentary on the work.