On the advice of his companion Bluteck, the cruel knight Barbe-Bleue (Blaubart) decides to remarry for the seventh time and kidnaps Bertha, the eldest daughter of the rich Geldsack. The next day, Barbe-Bleue leaves the castle and gives Bertha all the keys, including the one to the secret cabinet, which he nevertheless forbids her to enter. But Bertha disobeys him and discovers the decapitated bodies of his previous wives. To punish her for her curiosity, Barbe-Bleue sentences her to death. She is saved by her former suitor Hugo von Hohenfels, who, with the help of the servant Kasperl, enters the castle and kills Barbe-Bleue.

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Germany

Munich

Printed

Cruelty

Bear

Hunting

Marriage

Romanticism

Novel

Knighthood

Young girl

Deafness

Curiosity

Kidnapping

Women's condition

Murder

Dramatic

Comical

Parodistic

German

Barbe-Bleue

Kasperl

Knight

Ecuyer

Monologue

Song

Disguise

Dance

Word for another

Dialogue of the deaf

Parody of formal language

Devil's apparition

Blaubart

Bluebeard

In Bavaria, Kaspar learns that Professor Johann Christoph Gottsched is conspiring against him. He goes to Leipzig to work as a servant, under a false name, in the house of Gottsched and his friend, the actress and theatre director Caroline Neuber. During a performance, Caroline Neuber symbolically banishes Kaspar’s character from the stage and dismisses the actor who successfully played him, Silvio. But Gottsched's ward, Lucinde, is in love with the actor: the two young people defy Gottsched's dismissal and marry in secret. In search of a new actor to play the comic role in a play by the student Gotthold Ephraim, Caroline Neuber offers the position to Kaspar, who declines and then reveals his true identity. The actress breaks up with Gottsched and hires Silvio again, as well as Lucinde. Kaspar is arrested by the Bavarian policeman Stadelmann, who has set out after him, but is finally released by Gotthold Ephraim and is praised by the entire audience.

Glove-puppet

Not specified

Schmidt-Ziegler Tilla

Leipzig

Conspiring

Bavaria

Professor

Hanswurst

Dialect

Literature

Literary criticism

Theatre

Reformation

Forbidden love

Humour

Rationality

Pigtail

Puppenkomödie aus dem alten Leipzig

Madame Kasperl

Policeman

Johann Christoph Gottsched

Neuberin

Cook

Pasteur

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Off-stage voices

Metatheatre

Love story

Versified passages

Philosophical dialogue

Kaspar stirbt nicht!

Kaspar does not die!

After a prologue where Pulcinella introduces the play and the dog sings a song, Teresina is attacked by a man in the street. The Moon appears to Teresina and calls her to come in a bid to protect her. Pulcinella looks for his beloved but the Moon prevents him from approaching. Pulcinella disguises himself as a woman, he is attacked by the same man as Teresina, and is then pursued by Death disguised as a policeman who wants to tire him out with domestic chores. Pulcinella flies off to the Moon and persuades Teresina to come back with him. Back on Earth, the two lovers take revenge on their attacker, who turns out to be a child calling out to his mother for help, and they eat a dish of spaghetti.