Les Deux aveugles (OEK critical edition)

Libretto by Jules Moinaux; new German version; new English version by Richard Duployen (F,G,E)

2T,actors;
2(II=picc).1.2.1-2.2.1.0-timp.perc-strings;
Viennese orchestration: 2.2.2.2-4.2.3.0-timp.perc-strings

A bridge in Paris, 19th century

Two beggars compete for the desired place on the bridge. Neither of them wants competition, for the charity business runs badly. To impress each other, they fabricate the wildest stories. In order to get hold of the few pennies dropped by the passers-by, the blind are able to see again. The contest, accompanied by singing, develops into a grotesque musiquette, whose tone lies half-way between a Beckett-like sense of the comic and a melancholy reminiscent of Chaplin.

Comic