Nachtausgabe

libretto by Peter Ronnefeld (G)

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Mrs. Becker and Mrs. Pachulke are old friends. Shortly before setting off on a short holiday together, the two women are enjoying a cozy chat over coffee in Mrs. Becker’s living room. Their conversation revolves around the miserable weather and Mrs. Pachulke’s grown-up daughter, Renée. The young journalism student has been searching for a part-time job and has therefore been out in town all day.
Renée’s mother and her friend are somewhat concerned, for the sensationalist tabloid ‘Nachtausgabe’ [The Late Edition] is filled with alarming reports about young women who have mysteriously disappeared.
At that moment, Mrs. Becker’s lodgers, Ping and Lothar, enter to settle their long-overdue electricity bill. Lothar, a philosophy student, finances his studies by contributing poetry to the ‘Nachtausgabe’, while Ping struggles to make ends meet by selling his paintings and supplements his income by drawing cartoons for the same newspaper. He is in a hurry to get to the studio of his fellow artist Mario, where he has arranged to meet a model for a session of figure studies.
At Mario’s studio we learn that the beautiful model is none other than Renée, Mrs. Pachulke’s daughter, who occasionally poses nude for her friend Ping and his colleague Mario. Her true ambition, however, is to secure a position as a reporter for ‘Nachtausgabe’.
Soon afterwards, Erich Stilblüte* (pun intended), the editor-in-chief of ‘Nachtausgabe’, arrives at the studio to collect Ping’s latest cartoons and Lothar’s poem ‘Großstadt’ [The Big City] for the newspaper’s next issue. At the same time, he takes the opportunity to see whether Renée might be suitable as a junior reporter for his editorial staff.
Renée passes the improvised test with flying colours, and it is decided that her entry into the world of journalism should be celebrated appropriately with some hastily procured wine.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Becker and her friend Pachulke continue their coffee-fuelled reflections on life and the world, until the chime of the grandfather clock informs them that, in the midst of their conversation, they have missed the departure of their train. Considering the gloomy weather anyway, they promptly decide simply to postpone their trip …
A false report in ‘Nachtausgabe’, romantic entanglements, a glory-seeking police inspector, comic misunderstandings, and moments of thoughtful reflection are blended in this delightfully light-hearted comedy into a sparkling cocktail whose intricate plot ultimately resolves itself in cheerful harmony.

• a name that literally means ‘verbal blooper’

Libretto by Peter Ronnefeld (G)