Peter Cornelius

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  • Born: 24 December 1824, Mainz, Germany
  • Died: 26 October 1874, Mainz, Germany

Peter Cornelius was a member of Wagner’s circle at Bayreuth, and a friend of both Smetana and Berlioz.

He wrote two-and-a-half operas: Der Barbier von Bagdad, a failure in its time but since seen as the best German comic opera after Meistersinger; Der Cid, modelled on Lohengrin; and the unfinished Gunlöd, based (in proper Wagnerian style) on the Edda.

For more information, see Orville Timothy Lawton’s 1988 doctoral dissertation.

OPERAS

  1. Der Barbier von Bagdad (1858)
  2. Der Cid (1865) **
  3. Gunlöd (unfinished, 1869-74, performed 1906)