His plays, of which Merope (1774), an adaptation in blank verse of the tragedies of Maffei and Voltaire, and Medea (1775), a melodrama, are best known, were mostly based on French originals and had considerable influence in counteracting the formlessness and irregularity of the Sturm und Drang drama.
The words are by Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter and for many years the common view was that the melody was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Schlafe, mein Prinzchen, es ruhn: K. 350 (Anh. 284f; Anh. C 8.48)).
It is based on a short story of the same name by Italo Calvino, but incorporates excerpts from Friedrich Einsiedel's 1778 libretto (as reworked by Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter between 1790 and 1791) for an opera based on Shakespeare's The Tempest.
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