Warum hast du mich wachgeküßt (Friederike)

Lehár put Goethe on the operetta stage in Friederike, a Singspiel in three acts to a libretto by Ludwig Herzer and Fritz Löhner, first given in Berlin on 4 October 1928. The plot follows the young poet's Alsatian romance with Friederike Brion, a pastor's daughter who gives him up so that he can leave for Weimar. Using a national author as a stage character caused argument in the German press, and Richard Tauber's presence in the tenor part did much to settle it. The score keeps Lehár's late manner: song forms that close in renunciation rather than in a waltz.