Not long ago Otto Nicolai’s name was known to opera audiences only in association with his comic opera The Merry Wives of Windsor. A performance of his opera Il Templario changed our view of this composer’s oeuvre. Its success has encouraged us to acquaint the music world with yet another Italian opera by Nicolai produced in Chemnitz: Die Heimkehr des Verbannten.

The action is set during the Wars of the Roses in the fifteenth century. Lord Artur Norton is forced to leave his country, and is away for so long his wife Leonore believes him dead, and becomes engaged to marry Count Edmund of Pembroke. However, on their wedding day her missing husband returns. The two men initially insist on the validity of their claims to Leonore, but then Edmund generously concedes that Leonore belongs to Artur and declares that he is ready to renounce his beloved bride. He even secures a pardon for his rival from the king. However, it is precisely this act of kindness that makes it impossible for Leonore to decide between the two men. Instead she takes her own life.