An effusive poet looking for meaning in his life, goes into the forest. He has contradictory feelings and awaits a sign from a superior force. All of a sudden, an old woman apprears. She is almost deaf and their communication hilariously fails. The old woman leaves and the poet, still looking for a sign, announces several adventures often staged by the puppet theatre, such as Faust or Genoveva.

Not specified

Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal Hugo Laurenz August

Austria

Vienna

Printed

Poetry

Emotions

Forest

Bird

Animal

Nature

Deafness

Incomprehension

Dialect

Cuckoo

Kaspar Hauser

Genevieve of Brabant

Leda

Faust

Lyrical

Comical

German

Der Dichter am Kreuzweg als Vorspiel für ein Puppentheater

Poet

Old woman

Prologue

Monologue

Dialogue of the deaf

Comic Equivocation

Address to the public

Metatheatre

Vorspiel für ein Puppentheater

Prelude for a Puppet Show

Wandering in the forest, Kasperl finds refuge with a hermit, who wants to lead him to repent. The Devil plants a giant radish in Kasperl's path, a magical object that assures its owner that all his wishes will come true. Kasperl immediately orders six litres of beer from the radish, a dish of Leberknödel (liver dumplings) and cabbage, and a sofa to sleep off his drunkenness. The Devil then returns to damn him in the form of a prostitute who wants to lie down beside Kasperl; but he pushes her away violently, shouting that he is drunk and needs to sleep in peace. Then the sky opens up and angelic choirs sing him praises: Kasperl has triumphed over the devil and he receives a halo. Not knowing what to do with it, he leaves it with the hermit, who, in exchange, leads him out of the forest.

Glove-puppet

Blümel Otto

Germany

Gaienhofen

Repentance

Ascesis

Radish

Knödel

Beer

Seduction

Temptation

Couch

Angel

Aureola

Hermann Hesse

Farce

Satirical

Burlesque

Hermit

Kasperl

Devil

Der Teufel in Gestalt eines buhlerischen Weibs

Prostitute

Voix

Song

Off-stage voices

Versified passages

Devil's apparition

Thunderbolt

Appearance

Appearance of an angel

Chorus

Der Klausner

The hermit

The avant-garde painter Kompowski, annoyed by the critics who come to see him in his workshop, goes to the café. The drunken servant, Kasperl, takes advantage of his absence to paint a canvas with a very bad view of Munich. Gallery owners who had come to acquire the master's works bought his paintings from him for a thousand marks. The crowd comes to cheer the artist. But the critic Schaikeles eventually learns the identity of the real creator of the painting. Anzenmaier and Burger, the gallery owners, come to claim their money when Kompowski returns home, and the fight becomes widespread. Kasperl puts an end to this by smashing the paintings over the heads of the gallery owners and knocking Gombrowski out with his easel.

Munich

Painting

Futurism

Modernity

Expressionism

Art criticism

Drunkenness

Mean trick

Celebrity

Painter

Reviewer

Crowd

Caricature

Misunderstanding

Parody of formal language

Instrumental tune

Brawl

Die Maler

The painters

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.

Vorspiel für ein Puppentheater

Der Klausner

Die Maler

Kaspar stirbt nicht!

Puppenkomödie aus dem alten Leipzig