Editing Robert Schumann (section)

===Opera and choral===
[[File:Schumann-Genoveva-score.jpg|thumb|upright|Cover of ''[[Genoveva]]'' score|alt=front cover of musical score, with name of work, librettists, composer and publisher]]

''[[Genoveva]]'' was not a great success in Schumann's lifetime and has continued to be a rarity in the opera house. From its premiere onwards the work was criticised on the grounds that it is "an evening of {{lang|de|Lieder}} and nothing much else happens".<ref name=t308/> The conductor [[Nikolaus Harnoncourt]], who championed the work, blamed music critics for the low esteem in which the work is held. He maintained that they all approached the work with a preconceived idea of what an opera must be like, and finding that ''Genoveva'' did not match their preconceptions they condemned it out of hand.<ref>Cowan, Rob. [https://www.gramophone.co.uk/reviews/review?slug=schumann-genoveva "Schumann Genoveva"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240517100711/https://www.gramophone.co.uk/reviews/review?slug=schumann-genoveva |date=17 May 2024 }}, ''Gramophone'', January 1998 {{registration required}}</ref>  In Harnoncourt's view it is a mistake to look for a dramatic plot in this opera:
{{blockindent|It is a look into the soul. Schumann didn't want anything naturalistic at all. To Schumann this seemed alien to opera. He wanted to find an opera in which the music had more to say.<ref name=harn>[https://www.harnoncourt.info/schumann-genoveva-2/ "Schumann: Genoveva"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240518105600/https://www.harnoncourt.info/schumann-genoveva-2/ |date=18 May 2024 }}, Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Retrieved 18 May 2024</ref>|}}
Harnoncourt's view of the lack of drama in the opera contrasts with that of [[Victoria Bond]], who conducted the work's first professional stage production in the US in 1987. She finds the work "full of high drama and supercharged emotion. In my opinion, it's very stageworthy, too. It's not at all static".<ref name=t308>Tibbetts, p. 308</ref>

Unlike the opera, Schumann's secular oratorio {{lang|de|[[Das Paradies und die Peri]]}} was an enormous success in his lifetime, although it has since been neglected. [[Tchaikovsky]] described it as a "divine work" and said he "knew nothing higher in all of music."<ref>Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского, том 1 (1997), p. 229–230.</ref> The conductor [[Simon Rattle|Sir Simon Rattle]] called it "The great masterpiece you've never heard, and there aren't many of those now.&nbsp;... In Schumann's life it was the most popular piece he ever wrote, it was performed endlessly. Every composer loved it. Wagner wrote how jealous he was that Schumann had done it".<ref name=lso>[https://lsolive.lso.co.uk/products/schumann-das-paradies "Schumann: Das Paradies und die Peri"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240318131449/https://lsolive.lso.co.uk/products/schumann-das-paradies |date=18 March 2024 }}, London Symphony Orchestra. Retrieved 18 May 2024</ref> Based on an episode from [[Thomas Moore]]'s epic poem ''[[Lalla Rookh]]'' it reflects the exotic, colourful tales from Persian mythology popular in the nineteenth century. In a letter to a friend in 1843 Schumann said, "at the moment I'm involved in a large project, the largest I've yet undertaken – it's not an opera – I believe it's well-nigh a new genre for the concert hall".<ref name=lso/>

{{lang|de|[[Scenes from Goethe's Faust|Szenen aus Goethes Faust]]}} (Scenes from Goethe's Faust), composed between 1844 and 1853, is another hybrid work, operatic in manner but written for concert performance and labelled an [[oratorio]] by the composer. The work was never given complete in Schumann's lifetime, although the third section was successfully performed in Dresden, Leipzig and Weimar in 1849 to mark the centenary of Goethe's birth. Jensen comments that its good reception is surprising as Schumann made no concessions to popular taste: "The music is not particularly tuneful&nbsp;... There are no arias for Faust or Gretchen in the grand manner".<ref name=j233>Jensen, p. 233</ref> The complete work was first given in 1862 in [[Cologne]], six years after Schumann's death.<ref name=j233/> Schumann's other works for voice and orchestra include a [[Requiem Mass]], described by the critic [[Ivan March]] as "long-neglected and under-prized".<ref name=march/> Like Mozart before him, Schumann was haunted by the conviction that the Mass was his own requiem.<ref name=march>March ''et al'', p. 1150</ref>