(1803) Der lebendige Tote; cum multis aliis quae nunc perscribere longum est.
It may be convenient here briefly to review the progress of the Vampire in the theatre, at least in his most important appearances.
An Italian opera, I vampiri, the work of the much applauded Neapolitian composer Silvestro di Palma, which was performed at the Teatro San Carlo[54] in 1800 did not of course take anything from the novel by Polidori which indeed, it preceded by nearly twenty years, but was rather inspired by the famous treatise of Guiseppe Davanzati: Dissertazione sopra i Vampiri di Gioseppe Davanzati Patrizio Fiorentino e Tranese, Cavaliere Gerosolimitano, Arcivescovo di Trani, e Patriarca d’Alessandria. (Seconda edizione.) Nalopi. M.D.CC.LXXXIX. Presso Filippo Raimondi. Con licenzi de’ Superiori.
On 28th March 1828,[55] at Leipzig, was produced an opera, “Grosse romantische Oper,” Der Vampyr, founded on the original French melodrama, the scene being changed from Scotland to Hungary. The libretto is by Wilhelm August Wohlbrück and the music by his yet more famous brother-in-law Heinrich August Marschner. Der Vampyr was an enormous success. A free adaptation of this being made by J. R. Planché, and produced at the Lyceum, 25th August, 1829, it ran for sixty nights. In his Recollections and Reflections which have before been quoted, Planché commences Chapter X by some account of this. “In the summer of 1829 I had the opportunity of treating the subject of ‘The Vampire’ in accordance with my own ideas of propriety. The French melodrama had been converted into an opera for the German stage, and the music composed by Marschner.
“Mr. Hawes, who had obtained a score of it, having induced Mr. Arnold to produce it at the Lyceum, I was engaged to write the libretto, and consequently laid the scene of action in Hungary, where the superstition exists to this day, substituted for a Scotch chieftain a Wallachian Boyard, and in many other respects improved upon my earlier version. The opera was extremely well sung, and the costumes novel as well as correct, thanks to the kindness of Dr. Walsh, the traveller,[56] who gave me some valuable information respecting the national dresses of the Magyars and the Wallachians.
