Composition
Felix Mendelssohn
Library of Congress

Fair Melusina Overture Op. 32

Felix Mendelssohn
Library of Congress

In medieval folklore, Melusina was a beautiful girl cursed to take the form of a mermaid one day each week. She married the knight Reymund, and forbade him from ever seeing her on Saturdays. He betrayed her one fateful day, spying on her in the bath, and she disappeared forever from sight of humans, although the sound of her wailing remained.

Franz Grillparzer created a stage version of the Melusina folktale in 1823, and Conradin Kreutzer developed that play into an opera in 1833. Mendelssohn heard Kreutzer’s opera and hated it, but he did the tale justice when he crafted a concert overture inspired by Melusina for the Philharmonic Society in London. The music outlines the basic contours of the story, with a rolling “water” theme in F major that represents the secret mermaid, and a turbulent “galloping” theme in F minor that suggests Reymund’s intrusion during her bath.

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June 9–11, 2017
Mendelssohn Fair Melusina Overture
Watch Performance
11:58
Director Phillip Byrd
Editor and Associate Director: Janet Shapiro
Cameras: Patrick Pelham, Dan Huiting
Technical Director: Joshua Wyatt
Score Reader: Jeffrey Stirling
Audio: Cameron Wiley, Classical MPR
May 25–26, 2013
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