Friedrich Wilhem Gotter was born in Gotha where he spent a good deal of his life as archivist, civil servant and writer for the theatre. He translated a number of French plays for performance in Germany, but was also interested in English literature and his 1771 translation of Gray's Elegy written in a country churchyard had a considerable influence on the poets of the Göttingen Hainbund. He was very much interested in working with composers and provided the libretto for Benda's melodrama Medea, as well as adapting Shakespeare's The Tempest for Friedrich von Einsiedel's Die Geisterinsel.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 1993