Opera in German
The world's first opera was "Dafne" by Jacopo Peri, which appeared in Florence in 1598. Three decades later Heinrich Schütz set the same libretto in a translation by the poet Martin Opitz, thus creating the first ever German-language opera. The music to Schütz's "Dafne" is now lost and details of the performance are sketchy, but it is known to have been written to celebrate the marriage of Landgrave Georg II of Hessen-Darmstadt to Princess Sophia Eleonora of Saxony in Torgau in 1627. As in Italy, the first patrons of opera in Germany and Austria were royalty and the nobility, and they tended to favour composers and singers from south of the Alps. Antonio Cesti was particularly successful, providing the huge operatic extravaganza "Il pomo d'oro" for the imperial court in Vienna in 1668. Opera in Italian would continue to exercise a considerable sway over German-speaking lands throughout the Baroque and Classical periods. Nevertheless, native forms were developing too. In Nuremberg in 1644, Sigmund Staden produced the "spiritual pastorale", "Seelewig", which foreshadows the "Singspiel", a genre of German-language opera in which arias alternate with spoken dialogue. "Seelewig" was a moral allegory inspired by the example of contemporary school dramas and is the first German opera whose music has survived.
Opernhaus am Zwinger
The three-tier hall seated up to 2000 people and was at the time one of the largest opera houses in Europe. The first performance was on 3 September 1719 Antonio Lotti's "Giovi in Argo", followed on 13 September by the premiere of Lotti's "Teofane" on the occasion of the wedding of prince Friedrich August II, later the elector and as August III king of Poland, and Maria Josepha of Austria. The house flourished when he, an opera enthusiast, reigned as elector, and Johann Adolph Hasse was musical director. Due to the Seven Years' War, the last opera, Hasse's "Olimpiade", was performed in 1756. The building was used for balls and concerts. It burned down during the May Uprising in Dresden in 1849. The next opera house, the Semperoper, was built at a different location.