Der Prinz von Homburg (opera)

1960 opera by Hans Werner Henze
the opera by Henze

Der Prinz von Homburg (The Prince of Homburg) is a German language opera in three acts by Hans Werner Henze with a libretto by Ingeborg Bachmann (1926–1973). It was completed in 1958 but premiered on 22 May 1960 in Hamburg.

The text is based on the 1811 play, Prinz Friedrich von Homburg by Heinrich von Kleist. Frederick Bridgham prepared an English language translation for the English National Opera/Schott 1996 production in London. The opera shows Henze's strong personal dislike of German militarism. In a 1996 lecture, extracted and translated in the programme to the ENO 1996 production, Henze mentions the Leipzig tradition from Bach to Max Reger, Hermann Grabner and Wolfgang Fortner, the Viennese classical tradition and the Second Viennese School, in particular Beethoven and Arnold Schoenberg, Gustav Mahler and Stravinsky as influences. He describes how he contrasts "the beautiful old harmonies of yesterday" used to represent the Prince's dreamworld with "serially organized military music, with a predominance of fanfare like fourths and fifths in the twelve note row" used for the waking world.

There have been at least two multi national productions of the opera. The premiere production was toured to London in 1962. A revised production by Nikolaus Lehnhoff first seen in the Cuvilliés Theatre, Munich, in 1992 was brought to London by the English National Opera (ENO) in 1996. Elgar Howarth won a 1997 Laurence Olivier Award for conducting ENO's Die Soldaten / The Prince of Homburg at the London Coliseum.