Welcome to the Albert Lortzing Website

George Richard Kruse is one of the first biographers of Lortzing and his work cannot be underestimated. He published Lortzing’s letters in three editions and several short articles. Also he published a great deal of Lortzing’s Operas with extensive, “in der Beschränkung zeigt sich nicht der Meister” prefaces and he wrote two biographies.
One of them, published in 1914, is republished on this website, but the older biography of 1899 is, IMO, better. Some illustrations and examples of music and a text less focused on the sentimental aspects of the “undervalued genius”, exploited by his publishers, but more on the musical greatness of Lortzing, which should be, after all, what counts.

Now the good news is that this biography has been digitized recently by the Internet Archive, so you can read it online or download the pdf to your computer.

There is more: at the Internet Archive you find more Lortzing freebies: Opera scores with some misspellings (e.g. “bauberoper” “for “zauberoper”, but who cares), the French version of “Die beiden Schützen” (Les Méprises) and the libretto of “Zar und Zimmermann” (you can also find the piano score) published by Wittmann – with a very good preface. (Wittmann’s Lortzing biography is to be published on this website, currently work in progress).

Kruse’s publication of Lortzing’s letters (though surpassed now by I. Capelle’s out-of-print publication) are here and here.

Finally: piano scores of Lortzing’s most popular operas are at the International Music Score Library Project.

The Lippische Landesbibliothek Detmold, house of the Lortzing-Archive, has acquired a new autograph of Lortzing, although it actually is only a receipt with Lortzing signature. You can read the original article here:

(…)es handelt sich um eine Quittung der Schlesinger’schen Buch- und Musikalienhandlung in Berlin vom 10. Juli 1850. Lortzing quittiert den Verkauf der Lieder Nr. 4 und 6 aus der Schauspielmusik zu “Eine Berliner Grisette” (LoWV 93). Der Text der Quittung stammt aus fremder Hand, Lortzing unterschrieb und datierte nur selbst. Die zwei verschiedenen Tintenfarben sind auch gut zu erkennen.

An interesting issue of WUZ, a magazine devoted to Jean Paul – and especially his schoolmaster Wuz, who – like the Duke of Gloucester – preferred thin books over “damned fat square books”.
So, WUZ apparently always issues small, thin booklets with only a few pages. I only got to know the magazine when the publisher, Armin Elhardt, offered me to send me volume 19, devoted to Albert Lortzing and written by Lortzing’s greatest fan – not to say zealot: Jürgen Lodemann, as a present. A great gift – thank you mr. Elhardt!.
I know mr. Lodemann personally, I’ve met him, I’ve heard him lecturing on Lortzing in Detmold (2001) and Leipzig (2009),and I’ve read his “damned fat” book on Lortzing: “Gaukler und Musiker” (2000). And he gave me permission to publish his great essay “Nun kommt der Freiheit grosser Morgen” (on Lortzing’s opera “Regina”) on this website.
Now this small book is another example of Lodemann’s persuasive style: in nineteen short statements mr. Lodemann explains why Lortzing always has been important to opera culture and still should be important to us. Beautifully illustrated with drawings by Peter Schmidt, that make this issue a must-have for the Lortzing connoisseur and the collector of Lorzingiana. But also the superficially interested reader will pick it up to read and re-read it again and again, or just to browse through the pages.
WUZ is published in a limited edition, which is a shame. The only obstacle I can think of for you, my dear reader, is the language: WUZ is entirally written in German. But, thinking about it, when you’re interested in German culture you can’t have a serious problem with the language.