Expand
  • Find us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • View Our YouTube Channel
  • Listen on Spotify
  • View our scores on nkoda

English Deutsch
Music Text

Libretto by Lotte Ingrisch (G)

Scoring

colS,S,M,heldT,Bar,B; chorus;
1.1.1.1-1.2.1.1-timp.perc(3)-pft-elec.gtr-strings(1.0.2.2.2)

Abbreviations (PDF)

Publisher

Boosey & Hawkes / Bote & Bock

Territory
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes for the world.

Availability

World Premiere
30/10/1990
Ronacher-Theater, Wien
Elmar Ottenthal, director
Conductor: Caspar Richter
Company: Vereinigte Bühnen Wien

Roles

FRIDOLIN Lyric soprano
WÜSTERICH Heldentenor
MÜFF MÜFF Bass
PELZCHEN Coloratura soprano, also dancing
TULIFANT Baritone
SMARAGDA Mezzo soprano
Chorus
Time and Place

Fairy-tale about the enchantment and redemption of our planet Earth

Synopsis



The enslavement of the world by boundless frenzy for power does not begin with the theft of the Rheingold, with Wotan – here it is a tenor and anti-hero, Wüsterich, whose megalomania, fired by technology, drives the world towards its destruction. The earth is not the peaceful Rhine but the beautiful princess Smaragda, whose lovely green hair and lovely green gown appear ruined and defiled. She will be reduced to the level of a soulless clock before her young son, Fridolin, sets off to rescue her. This childlike young Siegfried is Smaragda’s son, but who is his father? Is it Wüsterich? Is it his brother, Tulifant? Or does Fridolin have two fathers? In a "Ring", anything is possible. Tulifant embodies the pantheistic philosophy of the monk, Giordano Bruno, who was burned as a heretic in Rome in 1600, believing in the ideals of each of the four worlds that exist parallel to ours! In the end, Wüsterich and Tulifant disappear between these worlds and make room for Fridolin, the symbol of hope for saving the world. On his quest Fridolin also meets with a dragon. However, unlike Fafner, Müff Müff is an easygoing fellow who is always sneezing and, in the form of a dinosaur, embodies the past. Müff Müff also gets on well with the future, whose name is Pelzchen and whose language must necessarily remain incomprehensible to present-day folk. Will Fridolin succeed in creating a better world?... Is this an opera for children? According to Lotte Ingrisch, everyone is a child who has an open heart and whose soul still has the ability to grow. They can be ninety years old.
Marcel Prawy

Moods

Comic, Dramatic, Poetic, Romantic

Subjects
Stay updated on the latest composer news and publications