Der steinerne Gast - Will Hermanns (Peter Josef Wilhelm Hermanns)

Der steinerne Gast

Ein schauerlich-schönes Spiel in 5 Akten mit Sing-, Flieg- und Keilerei

Will Hermanns (Peter Josef Wilhelm Hermanns) | 1921-1922 | Aachen, Germany
Genre (as defined by the author)
Ein schauerlich-schönes Spiel mit Sing-, Flieg- und Keilerei
Characters
Don Pietro, Donna Amarillis, Don Philippo, Don Juan, Ritter Alvaro Pantolfius, Schängche, Greta de la Rosa, Ein Einsiedler, Pestelures, Erster Gerichtsdiener, Zweiter Gerichtsdiener
Number of acts
5
Note

Will Hermanns' play is a rewriting of the version of Don Juan published by Karl Engel for the Aix-la-Chapelle stage. Part of the text is composed in free verse. Schängche, a typical Aix-la-Chapelle puppet theatre character, speaks in Öcher Platt, the local dialect: his parts are in prose, but Hermanns also lends him songs, inspired by the role of Leporello in Mozart's opera.

Plot summary

An immoral man is punished

Don Juan overhears a conversation between Amarillis and Don Philippo, who agree to a romantic rendezvous. He sets out to kidnap Amarillis, when her father, Don Pietro, appears. Don Juan stabs him, and then robs his relative Don Alvaro Pantolfius, before fleeing Seville with his servant Schängche. The latter, tormented by a devil, is carried into the air on a giant sausage. After a shipwreck in which Schängche is swallowed and then spat out by a whale, the two fugitives wander through the woods. They meet a hermit, who, under threat, lends Don Juan a suit to disguise himself. Lost in the forest, Amarillis meets Schängche's fiancée, the innkeeper Greta de la Rosa. Don Juan finds the two women and tries to seduce them, but Don Philippo finds him in the meantime. Don Juan murders him. Schängche still has to fight a monster they meet in the forest. They arrive by chance at Greta's inn, where Don Juan seduces the bride of a wedding that has just taken place. At the cemetery, he invites the statue of Don Pietro to supper, who accepts his invitation. But Don Juan refuses to repent and is damned. Schängche, on the other hand, marries Greta.

Related works
Don Juan1875
Don Giovanni, Lorenzo Da Ponte (Emanuele Conegliano), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Composition date
1921-1922

Other titles

Don Juan der Fraulütstrüester

First performance

Aachen, Germany, 1921 ou 1922 -

Aachener Puppenbühne "Öcher Schängche"

Publications and translations

Publication

Will Hermanns: Der steinerne Gast, oder Don Juan der Fraulütstrüester, Aachen, Wilhelm Siemes, 1923