“The Minstrel’s Curse,” for solo voice, chorus and orchestra, was written in 1852, and first performed in the same year. Its text is based upon Uhland’s beautiful ballad of the same name, which was adapted for the composer by Richard Pohl. The libretto shows numerous variations from the original text. Some of the verses are literally followed, others are changed, and many new songs and motives are introduced. Several of Uhland’s other ballads are assigned to the minstrel, the youth, and the queen, among them “Die Drei Lieder,” “Entsagung,” and “Hohe Liebe,” as well as extracts from “Rudello,” “Lied des Deutschen Sängers,” “Gesang und Krieg,” and “Das Thal.” Instead of the beautiful verse in the original poem:—
“They sing of spring and love, of happy golden youth,
Of freedom, manly worth, of sanctity and truth.
They sing of all emotions sweet the human breast that move,
They sing of all things high the human heart doth love.
The courtly crowd around forget to sneer and nod,
The king’s bold warriors bow before their God.
The queen, to pleasure and to melancholy willing prey,
Down to the singers casts the rose which on her bosom lay,”—
which leads up to the tragedy, it is the singing of the “Hohe Liebe” which is made the motive by Pohl, who from this point on follows the story as told by Uhland.