Gloria von Jaxtberg

Libretto by Rudolf Herfurtner. English translation by Amanda Holden (G,E)

S,M,T,Bar,B
asax(=cl,bcl).cl(=fl,tsax,ssax)-2tpt(II=flugel hn).tbn.tuba-perc(1):dr kit(PD/hi-hat/SD/2susp.cym)/cyms/bell tree/crot/bamboo pendulum rattle/t.bells/vibraslap/cencerros/marimba/xylorimba/glsp/vib/thunder sheet/wind machine/metal windchimes/Mahler hammer/splash cym/timp-harp-vln

All singers must be amplified, preferably using headset microphones.

A farm in the mountains

Gloria is rather special from the beginning because she has naturally curly golden hair and she knows she is the most beautiful pig in the mountains. Unfortunately, she is also the saddest, as the pigs in her sty are envious and spiteful and cannot tolerate anything out of the ordinary. Her cousin Gerhard and his troop of fellow swine make this unmistakably clear to her in the ‘March of the Pedigree Pigs’: the pedigree white German pig is blond, and its hair is short with no nonsense about it. Anything else is deviant, really deviant – almost as bad as being a wild pig. Gloria, this lovely lady pig, is left with only her hopes and her longings.

But longings are like blindfolds, so Gloria does not realise that the Prince, when he finally comes, is actually the butcher. The poor little sausages hanging on the wall sing her a song of thwarted hope, but their warnings seem to be in vain. The whole thing threatens to end in sausages – until love puts in an appearance in the shape of Rodrigo, the wild hero. He knows the ways of the world and he knows the butcher, and he rescues the gorgeous lady pig. At last it all turns out just as the oxen said it would.
Rudolf Herfurtner

Comic