Der Prinz von Homburg

The setting is near Fehrbellin and Berlin in the year 1675. The young Prince of Homburg experiences one of his periodical somnambulistic states in which he sees himself as the victor of the approaching battle. Whilst still caught up in his dreams, he misinterprets a joke made by the Elector and imagines that the latter has brought him together with the Elector’s niece Natalie with whom he is passionately enamoured. In a state of bewilderment following his rejection by Natalie, he omits to hear the Field Marshall’s order not to intervene in the battle until the Elector gives a specific command. The Prince observes the progress of the battle and issues an independent order to attack to his regiment. The battle concludes with a glorious victory; the Elector is however believed to have been killed in action. While the Prince is assuring Natalie and the Electress of his support, the Elector appears unexpectedly; his horse had been shot under him in battle. He has the Prince arrested on charges of insubordination. 
The court martial sentences the Prince to death. There are plans for Natalie to be given in marriage to the King of Sweden as a security for peace. The Prince pleads for mercy from the Electress and Natalie appeals to the Elector for clemency. The Elector agrees on one condition: if the Prince declares the judgement to be unjust, he will be pardoned. The Prince rejects this suggestion: he is prepared to suffer for his error. The Elector asks the officers if they still retain their respect for the Prince and the officers give their unconditional affirmation. The Elector tears up the death sentence document. Disassociated from reality by his somnambulism, the Prince awaits his death. He does not notice the Elector and his court approaching, accompanied by Natalie who crowns the Prince with a laurel wreath: his dream has become reality. 

Henze was inspired to compose the opera Der Prinz von Homburg by Luchino Visconti with whom he had collaborated on the ballet Maratona di Danza in 1957. Particularly in the dream sequences, he is ingenious in his utilisation of shimmering complex tonal textures to create a highly impressive musical illustration of the somnambulistic character of the Prince. 

"The Prince of Homburg, our cousin, the Hamlet of the Mark Brandenburg, is the hero of my new opera. […] It is quite plausible to abstract the world which Kleist has created in his work beyond the confines of its Prussian background. […] The “Prince of Homburg” focuses on the glorification of a dreamer, the destruction of the traditional concept of a classical hero: the essence is the blind and unimaginative application of laws and the glorification of human benevolence whose comprehension also strays into more profound and complex areas than would be “normal” and permits a man to find his place in the world despite being a dreamer and sentimentalist, or maybe precisely because of this. The concluding rallying cry “In Staub mit allen Feinden Brandenburgs!” [Down with the foes of Brandenburg!] in favour of this ideal nation in which (according to Kleist) love, understanding, forgiveness and mercy play such a substantial role, is also a tilt at the rigidity and indolence of the “reason of state” and forms a terrible dissonance to the cabinet order issued by the prominent ruler of this promised land of Brandenburg. [Henze is referring here to the cabinet order issued on 1 August 1828 banning all performances of the “Prinz von Homburg” in Brandenburg, Editor’s note]. The caustic double meaning hardly needs to be underlined: it continues to manifest itself with all its menace even in our own times."