The Queen of Sheba

Karl Goldmark

1875

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Die Königin von Saba (The Queen of Sheba) is Karl Goldmark’s most famous opera. Premiering in Vienna in 1875, its imaginative plot revolves around a love triangle involving the Queen of Sheba, Assad (an ambassador at the court of the biblical King Solomon), and Sulamith (Assad’s betrothed) during the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon.

Credits

Karl Goldmark, "Die Königin von Saba" [The Queen of Sheba] (Leipzig: Hugo Pohle, n.d.), Plate 348.H.P.342.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 6.

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Creator Bio

Karl Goldmark

1830–1915

Hungarian-born Karl Goldmark was a composer who overcame poverty and lack of formal training to achieve critical and popular renown. Though hardly prolific, Goldmark produced several important operas, symphonies, and concertos, finding fame in Vienna, his adopted city. A cantor’s son, born into an enormous and nearly destitute Jewish family, Goldmark learned the piano and violin before turning to orchestral music. On the whole, he rejected the avant-garde for the traditional, finding original variations within classic musical forms.

Related Guide

Music and Opera in Jewish Culture, 1750–1880

One of the most striking changes in European Jewish culture toward the later eighteenth century was marked by the entry of Jews into art music, opera houses, and the stage.

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