Spring is cheering the birds and people up: a child is amazed to see a butterfly take flight, young boys are playing with a kite, and the gravedigger, envious, admires a heron in the sky. His neighbour, a blacksmith, tells him that his wings are ready. He tries in vain to talk him out of his dream of flying. Elsbeth despairs at her husband’s fixation and relates the gravedigger’s dream; the latter is particularly gloomy and worries Elsbeth. Meanwhile, the gardener, who is in love with Elsbeth, easily removes his naïve rival, the poet Blumenstengel (literally, Flower stem) : the latter believes that he has temporarily been transformed into an attractive sunflower. At night, the gravedigger tries over and over to take flight; he invokes the moon and stars before yielding to the devil’s proposal… A few days later, the gardener and the young Elsbeth bill and coo as they praise the flowers of springs; then, devastated, the gravedigger’s wife relates that her husband, who has been missing for some time, appeared to her during the night and ordered her to die after one final and icy kiss. Two graves were dug. At night, the gravedigger calls Death, who takes a long time to come. When the clock strikes midnight, he hurries inside his house with a knife. The following day, it is revealed that he has killed his wife and daughter; he is denounced and sentenced to hang. The gardener mourns Elsbeth and the crowd laments the gravedigger’s madness.

Shadow theatre

Not specified

Kerner Justinus

Germany

Munich

Printed

Deal with the Devil

Madness

Flying dream

Crime

Love

Spring

Counterfeit Money

Tragic

Lyrical

Fantastic

Photo of Dora Polster's scenery and shadow figures for the scene involving Death and a monk (end of the first act), 1907.

German

Gravedigger

Wife

Gärtnermädchen und Tochter des Totengräbers

Daughter

Blacksmith

Gardener

Lover (man)

Poet

Spirit

Sculptor monk

Hunter

King

Young woman

Craftsperson

Death

Skeleton

People

Apparition of the Devil

Song

Instrumental tune

Hidden character

Monologue

Love duet

Graveyard scene

Arrest scene

Der Totengräber von Feldberg

The Gravedigger of Feldberg