An incomplete opera by Franz Liszt will receive its world premiere this June after lying undiscovered in a German archive for 200 years. Cambridge University academic Dr David Trippett discovered the abandoned composition in Weimar over 10 years ago, and has spent the past two years restoring it.

Liszt began composing the opera in 1948, but abandoned the project halfway through. Scholars who have examined the work have concluded that it could not be performed due to insufficient material – much of the piece is written in shorthand, and only one act is complete. Trippett disagreed with his colleagues, devoting himself to the 111 page manuscript and adding a 16 bar finale. The result is a complete first act stretching to almost an hour in length. A ten minute scene from the opera will be performed at the final of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World contest in June.

Trippett, a musicologist and cultural historian, said of the work: “This project is about bringing it to life for the very first time. The music that survives is breathtaking – a unique blend of Italianate lyricism and harmonic innovation. There is nothing else quite like it in the operatic world”.

Based on Lord Byron’s historical tragedy, Sardanapalus, the libretto tells the story of a peace-loving king of Assyria, more interested in domestic pleasures than matters of state. He is soon overthrown by rebels and burns himself alive with his lover, Mirra.

The opera’s restoration has been a group effort – while Trippett worked out the music Liszt notated, Cambridge research fellow Francesca Vella deciphered the Italian text with musicologist David Rosen, who helped translate the libretto into English.

“In effect, the manuscript has been hiding in plain sight for well over 100 years”, said Trippett. “It was written for Liszt’s eyes only, and has various types of musical shorthand, with spatial gaps in the manuscript. A lot of it is very hard to read, but the scruffiness is deceptive. It seems Liszt worked out all the music in his head before he put pen to paper, and to retrieve this music I’ve had to try and put myself into the mind of a 19th-century composer, a rare challenge and a remarkable opportunity.”

Scholars have generally referred to the opera as Sardanapale, which is what Liszt dubbed it in his French correspondence. However, as Trippett points out, the work would almost certainly have been called Sardanapalo because it is an Italian opera. This will indeed be the name given to the critical edition of the first act published next year.

“We will never know exactly why he abandoned his work and I suspect he would have been surprised to learn that it is resurfacing in the 21st century,” Trippett remarked. “But I like to think he would have smiled on it.”