Erwin und Elmire Add a review

Erwin und Elmire is an opera in two acts by Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, with a libretto by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, after Oliver Goldsmith's ballad of Angelica and Edwin, The Hermit, in his sentimental novel The Vicar of Wakefield.

Goethe moved to Weimar, in circumstances decisive for his future career, in November 1775. There he was introduced to Anna Amalia (1739–1807), the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, a formidable political figure who was also a fine composer. Goethe's arrival in Weimar coincided with her partial withdrawal from political life as her son had reached the age of maturity, and Anna seized the opportunity to provide her own setting of Erwin and Elmire for the Court Theatre, where it was first performed on 24 May 1776.