This beloved work should more properly be called the overture to Die Zauberharfe (“The Magic Harp”), the fairytale opera Schubert wrote in 1820.  After eight performances, the opera was taken off the program and quickly forgotten.  The overture was attached to Schubert's Rosamunde music only when it was published, almost thirty years after the composer's death.

In 1823, Schubert composed incidental music for a play called Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus by Helmina von Chézy, the playwright and poet who also wrote the libretto to the opera Euryanthe by Carl Maria von Weber, thereby putting considerable obstacles in the way of Weber's genius.  Rosamunde, which was also less than a theatrical masterpiece, was produced, and performed twice, at the Theater an der Wien.  Schubert wrote the incidental mujsic, but he did not compose an original overture; instead, he recycled the overture from another of his operas, Alfonso und Estrella, which was never been performed at all during his lifetime.

The Zauberharfe/Rosamunde overture consists of a brooding slow introduction (in C minor), followed by a spirited fast movement in C major.  It has an abundant flow of pleasing melodies, brilliantly orchestrated.  Once freed from all the unsuccessful stage works to which it had been connected, this sparkling music has thrived on its own as one of Schubert's most popular works.