Having never previously encountered Robert Schumann's only opera, I was unsure what to expect. Would the experience reflect the intimacy of his lieder or the grandeur of his symphonies? The answer, in effect, is both. Schumann’s instinctive understanding of the human voice is evident throughout, allowing the voice to unfold with natural expressive freedom. Beneath that lies the harmonic audacity familiar from the symphonies, along with those wandering melodic lines that seem to have neither beginning nor end, anticipating Wagner’s “Unendliche Melodien.”

That the opera premiered in the same year as Lohengrin, yet in certain respects feels the more advanced work, stands as a testament to Schumann’s originality and to the influence he exerted on his contemporaries.

Lucia Popp is radiant in the title role, spinning silver-hued melodic lines with ease and grace.