Content Introductory Remarks on Word-Music Relations: „Mein selbst ander ich“ Forms for Early German Opera in Dresden: Heinrich Schütz, Martin Opitz and Augustus Buchner Two Directions for the Early German Opera Libretto: Georg Philipp Harsdörffer and Simon Dach German Language Opera in Dresden, 1650 –1680 The Turning Point: Caspar Ziegler’s Von den Madrigalen (1653) and Initial Signs of its Impact in Dresden and Wolfenbüttel The Final Pieces of the Puzzle: Festspiele in Rudolstadt (1665 –1667) and „Die hällische Oper“ (1660 –1679) Three Operas at the Threshold of Maturity: Rosander und Rosimene (1679),Floretto (1683), and Die Drey Töchter Cecrops (1679) Opera as Poetic Genre and Source of Poetic Forms: „das galanteste Stück der Poesie“ Bibliographies Indices