Amalie of Saxony

The talented and creative princess Amalie lived her life in the shadow of her brothers, the Saxon Kings Friedrich August and Johann. While their estates have long been the focus of contemporary research, Amalie’s estate, including diaries and autograph scores and plays, remained largely overlooked and anonymous in German and Russian archives. Catalogs listed two-thirds of her works as having gone missing during World War II; they were therefore considered lost. Fortunately, almost all of her works have been found, including 12 operas. Amalie von Sachsen can be described as the greatest opera composer of the 19th century. However, almost all of the performances only took place once in a private royal circle. Amalie's uncle - the reigning king, Frederick Augustus the Just - did not want members of his family to appear in public for reasons of virtue and etiquette. Amalie therefore composed under the pseudonym Serena. Her aim was witty entertainment. The dramma giocoso, the comic opera or comic drama, was her domain. Additionally, she authored several German dramas under the pen name Amalie Heiter, which enjoyed considerable success when performed on stage in several countries beginning in 1834. The text is the biographical part of a dissertation about the composer Amalie von Sachsen, which was published by Verlag Serena, Moritzburg, Germany in 2021. The aim was to analyse the essence of her personality and uncover creative impulses and influences in the context of the political and historical environment. The life of the composer Amalie of Saxony up to 1835 was the first point of interest.