Die Kluge - Plot

Set in a royal fairy tale palace and the surrounding area and performed partly on the forestage and partly on the main stage:
A farmer has found a golden mortar and, ignoring the advice of his daughter, brings it to the king who has the farmer thrown into prison under suspicion of having stolen the missing pestle. Having heard of the farmer’s grievance, the king sends for his daughter and gives her three riddles to »resolve« the matter. After she has passed the test of astuteness, the king takes her as his wife.

When the king becomes involved in a legal dispute between the donkey man and the mule man concerning a foal to which both believe they have a right and delivers a false judgement, his clever wife defends the rights of the misjudged party and is cast out by the king. She is permitted to take with her in a chest »that which she has most set her heart on«.
The king is overcome by the opium poppy and the magic of her slumber song and falls asleep; he awakes in the morning light, lying in the chest, under a blossoming tree.[1]

 

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[1] Werner Thomas in: Pipers Enzyklopädie des Musiktheaters, Vol. 4, Munich 1991,p. 581 ff.
Image: OZM

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