Wittkopp (opera)
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Wittkopp |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Hans-Joachim Marx |
| Libretto : | Margret Radich |
| Premiere: | 1983 |
| Place of premiere: | Braunschweig |
| Place and time of the action: | Ribbesbüttel and Braunschweig, without time |
| people | |
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Framework story:
Main story:
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Wittkopp is a children's opera in a prelude and four acts by Hans-Joachim Marx . Margret Radich wrote the libretto . The first performance of the work took place in 1983 on the Domplatz in Braunschweig . Directed by Peter Lund .
action
foreplay
The rushing spectators eagerly await the following spectacle.
1st elevator
The simple-minded farmer Hinz and his daughter Gret are in love with the lazy ox Wittkopp and pamper him on their farm in Ribbesbüttel . The farmer wishes Wittkopp were human and could one day inherit his farm. Gret, on the other hand, longs for her future husband in him. Three students, who are dependent on small rip-offs for their livelihood, come along and promise to turn the beloved ox into a real person for a fee of 100 marks within a month. Farmer Hinz agrees, pays the required wages and lets the fraudsters go away with the ox.
2nd elevator (from Ribbesbüttel to Braunschweig)
The students try hard to move the stubborn ox Wittkopp by pulling and kicking it on. Two hikers passing by make fun of them because a lazy ox can hardly be sold at a good price. In the end, however, they give the well-intentioned advice to ride on Wittkopp in order to get him used to work. When all three students jump on the ox at the same time, the ox almost collapses. Some market women who feel sorry for the animal scold the students and persuade them to spare Wittkopp, since an exhausted ox can hardly be sold at a good price. The ox is then carried by the students. After a while they finally meet a cattle dealer, whom they sell to Wittkopp for the high price of 500 marks after unfair negotiations. The students immediately squander the entire profit.
3rd elevator
In Braunschweig the three students wander through the lively streets and use bags from strangers. When they happen to meet farmer Hinz and his daughter Gret, they first try to run away. Asked by the two, they explain that Wittkopp is now no longer an ox, as promised, but a person: the newly appointed mayor of the city.
The new mayor is harassed by many visitors in the town hall with their urgent concerns and hardly knows where his head is. When farmer Hinz and his daughter Gret are admitted to him, the misunderstandings take their course. Since he does not recognize them, the two describe the mayor as a faithless ox, who came to office and dignity with their money alone, and he can only counter the alleged allegations of bribery by vacating his post.
4th elevator (from Braunschweig back to Ribbesbüttel)
Farmer Hinz and his daughter are disappointed on their way home to Ribbesbüttel. When they meet the cattle dealer, who is desperately struggling with the lazy ox Wittkopp, they decide to buy it because of the alleged resemblance to their beloved animal. The dealer receives 100 marks and happily leaves and the stubborn ox is now farmer Hinz and Gret's problem again. The former mayor, who is now on the move, rushes to their aid, is recognized as Wittkopp and goes to the farm as a farmhand and future son-in-law of the farmer. The lazy ox Wittkopp, on the other hand, has to get used to field work from now on.
All went well and the three students proclaim the peculiar moral of the story.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.staatstheater.karlsruhe.de/ensemble/id/1555/
- ↑ Hans-Joachim Marx: Wittkopp , piano reduction, self-published [1983]