Otto Nicolai: "The Merry Wives of Windsor" Overture (with Score)

Otto Nicolai:
"The Merry Wives of Windsor" Overture (with Score)
Composed: 1845 - 1849

Carl Otto Ehrenfried Nicolai (9 June 1810 – 11 May 1849) was a German composer, conductor, and one of the founders of the Vienna Philharmonic. In addition to five operas, Nicolai composed lieder, works for orchestra, chorus, ensemble, and solo instruments.

The Merry Wives of Windsor (Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor) is an opera in three acts by Otto Nicolai to a German libretto by Salomon Hermann Mosenthal based on the play The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare.

Otto Nicolai composed the music from 1845 to 1849. He had previously achieved great success with a few Italian operas, but this opera was to become his masterpiece in the German language. The composer himself made some changes to the libretto.

It was difficult at first to find a stage that was willing to mount the opera, but following the premiere at the Königliches Opernhaus (Royal Opera House, now Berlin State Opera) in Berlin on 9 March 1849 under the baton of the composer, it achieved great success and its popularity continues to this day. Though the libretto and the dramaturgy may seem old-fashioned to today's audiences, the music is of such high quality that the work is nevertheless performed with increasing regularity.