Agnes von Hohenstaufen is a German-language opera in three acts by the Italian composer Gaspare Spontini. The German libretto is by Ernst Benjamin Salomo Raupach. It was first staged at the Königliches Opernhaus, Berlin, on 12 June 1829. Raupach categorised Agnes von Hohenstaufen as a historical-romantic opera and it is one of a number of German works of the time set in the Middle Ages. Agnes also contains many of the features that would be characteristic of French Grand Opera. Spontini substantially reworked the piece for a revival in 1837.
The composer
Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini was an Italian opera composer and conductor from the classical era. During the first two decades of the 19th century, Spontini was an important figure in French opera, and composed over twenty works.
Spontini, after Nicolas-Eustache Maurin
Portrait of Gaspare Spontini, composer (1774-1851)