The spinster and the thief
Photograph by Carl van Vechten , from the Van Vechten Collection of the Library of Congress
The Old Maid and the Thief ( Engl. The Old Maid and the Thief ) is an opera in 14 scenes by Gian Carlo Menotti . The text comes from the composer Gian Carlo Menotti. The musical premiere took place on April 22, 1939 in New York (NBC), the staged world premiere on February 11, 1941 in Philadelphia (Academy of Music).
people
- Miss Todd ( Alt )
- Laetitia , her housemaid ( soprano )
- Bob , tramp ( baritone )
- Miss Pinkerton , friend of Miss Todd ( soprano )
- Archibald B. Singer
- Policeman ( bass ).
The play takes place in a small American town around 1900 .
action
Miss Todd, an "old maid," is the chairman of several small charities. She and her housemaid find the tramp Bob adorable and believe he escaped from prison when her friend tells Miss Pinkerton about a criminal nearby. They quickly take him in and Miss Todd falls in love with him. She wants to impress Bob with money and begins to make money disappear from the coffers of the charities. It soon turns out that Bob is just a tramp and not a criminal and that he is not reciprocating Miss Todd's love, so she goes to the police and tries to put the blame on him. Your employees Laetitia and Bob have now fallen in love. They flee and take the old maid's belongings with them. When Miss Todd returns, she faints.
German premiere
The German premiere took place on July 3, 1947 at the German National Theater in Weimar . German text by Peter Holl, arrangement and staging by Hans Stüwe , musical director Gregor Eichhorn, overall equipment by Rolf Christiansen. The subtitle in Weimar was: Conditionally *) cheerful opera in 14 pictures , with the following footnote: »*) Conditionally cheerful, because in this opera the extremely strange case occurs that a young beggar is interested in such simple and natural things as bread, egg, Bacon and coffee for the sake of a longer moment is inclined to give up his freedom (note from the 6-volume commentary on the "Old Maid and the Thief" by Professor Traugott Kleophas Deuterich). "
Web links
- Work data for The old Maid and the Thief based on MGG with discography at Operone