Johann Friedrich Kind (4 March 1768, in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

– 24 June 1843 in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

) was a German dramatist, most famous for writing the libretto for

Carl Maria von Weber Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (18 or 19 November 17865 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic who was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas, ...

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

Der Freischütz ' ( J. 277, Op. 77 ''The Marksman'' or ''The Freeshooter'') is a German opera with spoken dialogue in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind, based on a story by Johann August Apel and Friedrich Laun from their 18 ...

'' (1821).

Biography

He studied law, and began his law practice in

in 1793. In 1814, he abandoned his law practice to devote himself exclusively to literary work. He was a very industrious writer in many fields of literature, in all of which he was popular in his day with a large class of readers. With Winkler, he edited the ''Abendzeitung'' from 1817 to 1826. Though he published five volumes of sentimental and popular poetry, his poetry is the weakest of his literary efforts; the 1894 edition of the reputed Brockhaus encyclopedia critiqued it as being "smooth in form but without the least bit of originality."Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexikon. 14th ed., Leipzig, Berlin and Vienna 1894; Vol. 10, p. 339. His popular tales have somewhat more merit than his poems; but it is in the line of operatic plays that he is best and most generally known.

Libretti and plays

Besides ''

'', he wrote the play ''Das Nachtlager von Granada'' (1818), which later became the model for

Karl Johann Braun von Braunthal Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austri ...

's libretto for Conradin Kreutzer's opera '' Das Nachtlager in Granada'' (1833). He also wrote ''Der Holzdieb'' (set to music by

Heinrich Marschner Heinrich August Marschner (16 August 1795 – 14 December 1861) was the most important composer of German opera between Weber and Wagner.

Notes

References

* * ''This article uses material from the German version of Wikipedia'' 1768 births 1843 deaths German opera librettists German poets German male poets German male dramatists and playwrights 19th-century German dramatists and playwrights 19th-century German male writers {{Opera-bio-stub