Reviving the Queen of Sheba: American Romantics record a suite from Goldmark’s once-popular first opera

Goldmark: The Queen of Sheba Suite; American Romantics, Kevin Sherwin
Reviewed 26 January 2026

Highly popular during his lifetime and up until the 1930s, Goldmark’s first opera has languished rather. Here revived in an abbreviated concert suite, American Romantics give us a lovely taste of the opera’s melodic charms and ingratiating manner 

Composer Karl Goldmark remains known if at all, for his Rustic Wedding Symphony. Born Károly Goldmark in 1830, his father was a cantor to the Jewish congregation at Keszthely in Hungary. Moving to Vienna in 1844 to study at the Vienna Conservatory, he found himself on his own after 1848 when the Revolution of 1848 forced the Conservatory to close down. Goldmark was largely self-taught as a composer and survived doing menial jobs, eventually becoming a member of Vienna’s Carl Theatre in 1850. He also pursued a side career as a music journalist. Johannes Brahms and Goldmark developed a friendship as Goldmark’s prominence in Vienna grew.

His output includes symphonies, concertos, and seven operas. His first opera, Die Königin von Saba (The Queen of Sheba) remains his best known and the work was celebrated during his lifetime and for some years thereafter. Though he had begun it in 1860, it was not premiered in Vienna until 1875. The work proved so popular that it remained in the repertoire of the Vienna Staatsoper continuously until 1938, clocking up some 250 stagings in Vienna alone.

Goldmark’s footprint on disc remains relatively frustrating. You can find his Wedding Symphony, a disc of Symphonic Poems and his Violin Concerto No. 1 (paired with that of Korngold). Die Königin von Saba has been recorded: 

• a live 1970 performance of the work by the American Opera Society Orchestra conducted by Reynald Giovaninetti with Arley Reece as Assad and Alpha Floyd as the Queen of Sheba
• a 1980 studio recording by the Hungarian State Opera, conducted by Ádám Fischer with Siegfried Jerusalem as Assad and Klara Takács at the Queen of Sheba on Hungaraton 
• Oper Freiburg on CPO from 2016

However, it does not seem to be easily available, and the opera has slipped down the cracks. 

Like Meyerbeer, Goldmark was Jewish, so his operas fell out of currency from the late 1930s and post-War his style seems to have been deemed out of date. However, criticism of the work goes back a long way. A devastating critique of the 1875 premiere by Eduard Hanslick, still regarded as influential today, leaves its mark. Though Hanslick too was Jewish, he criticized The Queen of Sheba in particular for ‘its plaintive, whining music’ with its ‘oriental-Jewish character’. [see more on Seen & Heard]

The libretto is by Salomon Hermann Mosenthal, a writer, dramatist, and poet of German-Jewish descent who spent much of his life in Austria. His opera libretti include that for Otto Nicolai’s Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (premiered in Vienna in 1871) and three for Anton Rubinstein (1861, 1875 and 1892).

The plot centres on a love triangle not found in the Bible between the Queen of Sheba – mezzo-soprano, Assad (an ambassador at the court of Solomon) – tenor, and Sulamith (Assad’s betrothed) – soprano. The Queen of Sheba is not entirely a sympathetic character and the libretto rather leans into the Jewish tradition regarding her.  

The good news is that American Romantics, conductor Kevin Sherwin, have recorded Goldmark’s Queen of Sheba Suite. The suite arranges ballets, choruses and arias for chamber orchestra (14 players in all). Undoubtedly the result lacks the symphonic splendour of the original, but Sherwin and his players bring out the melodic charm of the work. 

The first movement, Ballet is the longest and has a deal of romantic charm. Goldmark’s musical style is relatively conservative, any influence of Wagner is well in the background, but Sherwin makes a good case for the music. It is fascinating, too, to hear explicit Jewish musical influences in the melodies.

The remarkably tender aria for the hero, Aus klaren Fluthen steigt portrays his mystical first encounter with the Queen. The Festal Music (from Act Two) moves from a haunting moonlit night to rather perkier sounds, then there is more passion from the hero in Magische Töne. For all its loveliness and haunting melodies, Goldmark’s style remains firmly retrospective, and it is worth bearing in mind that Bizet was only eight years younger than him. But Goldmark can certainly write gorgeous melodies. There is another ballet, of course, where the music is closer to dramatic pantomime than tone poem. Ewig, ewig gives us a hint of Goldmark’s handling of the larger-scale choral scenes as this chorus comes from a depiction of the ancient temple. The work ends with the finale where the hero dies in the heroine’s arms as they declare eternal love – of course.

The recording is not a substitute for a good modern account of the work, but it certainly does give us a lovely taste of the charms of Goldmark’s music and makes me curious about hearing the complete opera.

The American Romantics was founded in 2017, inspired by the extraordinary and forgotten artistry of musicians from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Working closely with the Yale Collection of Historical Sound Recordings, they explore the stylistic performance practices of the Romantic-era through research into archival documents, treatises, and early recordings. 

Goldmark: The Queen of Sheba Suite – American Romantics, Kevin Sherwin – AR1875 [further information]