Dance and Poetry in the Works of Maria Aurora von Königsmarck

Maria Aurora von Königsmarck is one of the most fascinating poets of the 17th century. Educated at the courts in Stade and Stockholm, working for the Saxon Elector, Augustus the Strong, and later as an abbess in Quedlinburg, she wrote numerous poems and plays, of which today especially the lyrical works are handed down. Fortunately, two scores of opera-ballets have survived, in which the Countess of Königsmarck played a significant role as a dancer and as a poet —namely the music notes of ‘Fastnachts-Lust’ and ‘Musen-Fest’ (Dresden, 1696 and 1697), which are in the British Library, London (librettos in the Saxon State Archives). In the opinion of Dorothea Schröder and Stephan Kraft, Aurora’s biographers (2015), ‘Fastnachts-Lust’ is the only dramatic piece that can be clearly attributed to her handwriting. This paper gives an insight into Aurora´s life as a muse, dancer and poet. Above all, it presents her pieces and the interplay of dramatic parts and ballet scenes, as well as the meanings of the dances for the dramatic structure and the depicting of the contents.