Richard Wagner was an expert at self-promotion. As he moved artistically toward “music drama”, it served his purpose to tout Der fliegende Holländer as a break with his three earlier operas, all ultimately excluded from the Bayreuth canon. Thus certified as unworthy, his second opera, Das Liebesverbot, a “grosse komische Oper”, was long shunned following its single, disastrous performance in 1836. It has never been professionally staged in America until now at Glimmerglass Opera.

Seeing it is a delightful and revelatory experience. Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love) is sometimes compared to Bellini, a Sicilian composer. Indeed, Wagner, loosely basing his opera on Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, shifted the action to Palermo and even took the side of Italian sensuality over German piety. Friedrich, a German temporarily ruling the city, orders a crackdown on immorality, which results in a death sentence on young Claudio for impregnating his fiancée. Claudio’s sister Isabella intervenes, but Friedrich requires her sexual favours for Claudio’s freedom. Isabella concocts a scheme for freeing Claudio while preserving her honour.