Leviathan

Libretto by Thornton Wilder; German version by Herbert Herlitschka (E,G)

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After a stormy night, what is left of a Venetian frigate is drifting at sea with an unconscious prince on board. Brigoméide, a mermaid, wakens him and offers to save him for the price of his soul. The prince, who thinks he is seeing a vision, tries in vain to explain that one cannot simply give away a soul, and so he has to drown.

Leviathan is the first of the Three Water Plays (Drei Wasserspiele) by Detlev Glanert, three chamber operas based on the ‘Three-Minute Plays’ by Thornton Wilder, to be performed separately or as a trilogy.

Dramatic, Poetic