Scarcely less popular in Germany than 'Czar und Zimmermann' is
'Der Wildschuetz' (The Poacher), a bustling comedy of intrigue and
disguise, which owes its name to the mistake of a foolish old village
schoolmaster, who fancies that he has shot a stag in the baronial
preserves. The chief incidents in the piece arise from the humours of a
vivacious baroness, who disguises herself as a servant in order to make
the acquaintance of her _fiance_, unknown to him. The music of 'Der
Wildschuetz' is no less bright and unpretentious than that of 'Czar und
Zimmermann'; in fact, these two works may be taken as good specimens of
Lortzing's engaging talent. His strongest points are a clever knack of
treating the voices contrapuntally in concerted pieces, and a humorous
trick of orchestration, two features with which English audiences have
become pleasantly familiar in Sir Arthur Sullivan's operettas, which
works indeed owe not a little to the influence of Lortzing and Kreutzer.
Inferior even to the slightest of the minor composers of the romantic
school was Flotow, whose 'Martha' nevertheless has survived to our time,
while hundreds of works far superior in every way have perished
irretrievably. Flotow (1812-1883) was a German by birth, but his music
is merely a feeble imitation of the popular Italianisms of the day.
'Martha' tells the story of a freakish English lady who, with her maid,
disguises herself as a servant and goes to the hiring fair at Richmond.
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