It shelters the budding love of the young couple in Act 1 and oversees the town’s activity in Act 2, before shedding its leaves in the winter of Act 3. The set imagined by Johannes Leiacker is dominated by a giant lime tree that stands just right of centre. It is a visually stylish affair, as is, unsurprisingly for this director, the rest of the staging. Director Christof Loy ingenuously solves this problem by adding a still black-and-white film which is projected during the orchestral prelude to Act 3. © Dutch National Opera | Monika RittershausĪ major flaw in the libretto is a gap of several months in the storyline between Act 2 and 3, during which important events happen which are never mentioned in the opera. The inhumanity of the mob is tragically prescient of the librettist’s own real life story, as Elsa Bernstein-Porges would be deported to Theresienstadt during World War 2. They are ruthlessly chased out of the city by the mob and spend months wandering in the forest before meeting a tragic death. The people of Hellastadt think differently however when the young couple arrives in the city in their lowly apparel, they are mocked and shouted at, in spite of the Fiddler’s appeal to recognise them as the King’s Children who, according to the Witch’s prophecy, are meant to rule over the city. The two fall instantaneously in love, in spite of their differences in social standing: they know that nobility is to be found in one’s heart rather than one’s ancestry. Lost in a forest on his quest for knowledge, the King’s Son meets the Goose Girl, who lives a secluded life with the Witch, away from other people. Perhaps a reason for its unpopularity can be found in the profound pessimism of its dark tale.
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