- Mendelssohn completed his Ouverture zum Märchen von der schönen Melusine, Op.32 (Overture to Fairy Tales of the Fair Melusina) on November 14, 1833.
- Mendelssohn took his inspiration from an opera on the legends of the mermaid or water sprite Melusina by Conradin Kreutzer. Mendelssohn felt he could do a better job with the story (which is probably true, considering we’re still playing Mendelssohn’s overture, and not Kreutzer’s opera).
- This work was commissioned for performance in London, and it premiered there on April 7, 1834.1
Sources
- R. Larry Todd, “Mendelssohn(-Bartholdy), (Jacob Ludwig) Felix,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed July 23, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000051795.
Cut IDs
23471 40655