Description
Martha is Flotow's most popular opera, staged regularly in opera houses throughout the world. One important element in its success is that it was the first German comic opera to abandon spoken dialogue and employ continuous music. This serves to heighten the effect of the excellent libretto with its clever couplets and tightly organized tale.
The plot is conventional and accessible - two young men seek two young women, find them, lose them, and are reunited with them at the end. Along the way there are disguises and mistaken identities, crowd scenes, royal splendor, and sincere, deep emotions from the principal characters.
This edition of the Vocal Score is in the original German with an English version by Natalia McFarren.