Born in 1810, Robert Schumann was part of the Romantic era—a time when many composers were preoccupied with music’s potential for expressing the “inexpressible” through closer links with other art forms, rich melodies, lush harmonies, technical virtuosity, and formal expansion. Schumann was firmly entrenched in this system of beliefs. As he once wrote, “Music speaks the most universal of languages, one by which the soul is freely, yet indefinably moved; but it is then at home.” Known for his writings about musical aesthetics, Schumann founded the influential journal Die Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal in Music) in 1834, through which he introduced the German public to composers like Johannes Brahms. His musical output represents nearly all the significant 19th-century genres, including art songs, piano music, chamber music, symphonies, and concertos.

Conspicuously absent from Schumann’s oeuvre, however, is opera. We know from his notebooks that he began considering composing an opera based on German legend in the early 1840s. Intense depression—an affliction he battled throughout much of his life—stood in the way. His health improved after moving to Dresden in 1844 with his wife Clara, and he began work on Genoveva, based on the medieval legend of Genevieve of Brabant. In the opera, Genevieve’s husband, Siegfried, departs on a crusade, leaving her with Golo, his trusted knight and servant. Instead of protecting her, Golo makes repeated and unwelcome advances. Siegfried initially believes his wife has been unfaithful and orders her execution. At the last minute, he learns the truth about Golo and reunites with Genevieve.

Schumann’s opera displays Richard Wagner’s influence, particularly the complete avoidance of the usual distinction between recitative and aria. Wagner was not impressed, however—an attitude that caused a rift between the two composers.

Genoveva’s overture was a different story, however. Interestingly, Schumann completed it even before the libretto and performed it several times before the opera’s Leipzig premiere on June 25, 1850. While there is little thematic overlap between the overture and the rest of the opera, it sets the mood and foreshadows the narrative arc from despair to triumph. Genoveva only received three performances and was destined to be Schumann’s only opera—but as critic Eduard Hanslick asserted, the overture was the best part.