Duration: full evening
Text by the composer after a French legend and drama by Ludwig Tieck and Friedrich Hebbel
Place: Siegfrieds Castle, Genovevas room, Inns to Strasburg, wild rocky region near Siegfrieds Palace

Characters: Hidulfus, Bishop of Trier (baritone) - Siegfried, Count Palatinate (baritone) - Genoveva, his wife (soprano) - Golo (tenor) - Margaretha (soprano) - Drago, Royal Tutor (bass) - Balthasar, Hunter (bass) - Caspar, Hunter (baritone) - Angelo (silent part) - Conrad (silent part)

Genoveva, the young and rather naive wife of the Count Palatinate Siegfried, is accused of adultery during her husbands absence by the royal tutor Golo. Golo is visibly seeking revenge, since Genoveva has always rejected his advances. When Siegfried returns from the crusade, he sentences his wife to death, but the hangman has pity with her and sets her free in the wilderness. Genoveva then spends seven years in the forest living on herbs and the milk of a hind, which she also feeds to her son, who was born shortly after her banishment. Siegfried, who long ago regretted his harsh deed, finds her while he is on a hunt and brings her back to the palace.

The folk legend stems from France but also became known in Germany in the 17th century. Schumann created a work that was totally new and innovative for its time, and in which he only used the legend to establish the framework for psychograms of the protagonists, whose most intimate emotions are given voice by the music.