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Student Armand falls in love with Manon and runs away with her to Paris. Their relationship is strained by poverty, infidelity, and drug addiction. Manon returns to Armand, but when she shoots an older man during a confrontation, she is arrested as Armand escapes.
Set in summer and winter, the opera centers on Fusako Kuroda, her son Noboru, and merchant navy officer Ryuji Tsukazaki.
Prince Friedrich dreams of Princess Natalie during preparations for battle and attacks prematurely, though his cavalry succeeds. The Elector arrests him for disobedience and expects to ratify a death sentence. Natalie frees Friedrich, while the Elector decides to pardon him; at the supposed execution, he instead grants Friedrich her hand.
Sir Edgar, an aloof English gentleman, arrives in a German town with an entourage and animals, then invites a circus troupe into his mansion. Months later, his nephew Lord Barrat is presented to the townspeople, who imitate his eccentric behavior. At a dance, Barrat’s clothes fall away and reveal him to be a trained ape.
A leftist intellectual is lured toward Natascha Ungeheuer’s apartment, a “siren of a false Utopia.” He resists going all the way to her apartment but has not yet found a path to revolution. The allegory satirizes people who preach socialist values while retaining a bourgeois lifestyle.
A country doctor is summoned to a distant house to treat a seriously ill boy. His maid Rosa cannot find a horse, but a mysterious stable boy arrives with horses and assaults her. The doctor is transported to the patient’s house and worries about Rosa. The boy has a deep wound and begs to die. His family forces the doctor into the boy’s bed, threatening him if the patient is not healed. The doctor escapes on a horse but cannot return home and is condemned to travel eternally.
At an inn in the Austrian Alps, poet Gregor Mittenhofer uses those around him—including his secretary, doctor, young muse Elisabeth, and a widow troubled by visions—as material for his art. When a young man arrives and attracts Elisabeth, Mittenhofer lets the couple go into a snowstorm without warning them. They die, and he turns the tragedy into a wordless elegy.
Art student Gisela visits Naples with her German boyfriend Hanspeter and falls in love with Gennaro, a young actor playing Pulcinella. They flee to Germany, but after arriving in Oberhausen they have nowhere to stay; Gisela dreams that Hanspeter and his friends attack them as Vesuvius erupts.
After the governor casts the king into the forest as a child, he returns to claim his kingdom. The governor tricks him into returning to the forest, where he becomes a stag. The king eventually returns, the governor is killed, and the king regains human form.
Al Radshi sends his three sons to find his vanished golden hoopoe, but only the honest Al Kasim undertakes the quest. With a demon’s help, he finds the bird, rescues a captive princess, and obtains a magic chest. His jealous brothers push him and the princess into a well and claim his achievements, but the pair are rescued and the brothers expelled. Al Kasim must complete another quest before he can marry the princess, and the ending leaves their union unresolved.
Ondine bears a resemblance to The Little Mermaid. The story derives from Fouqué's novella Undine, the tale of a water-nymph who marries a mortal. Similar to other 19th century fairy tales, the plot is based on man (Palemon) encountering the supernatural (the water nymph Ondine), but the outcome is rather different from many of the 19th century classics: here, it is the man that dies, and the female character survives. Ondine makes her first entrance from a fountain, shivering in the cold air as we would in water, and dances with her shadow, which she has never seen before. She meets the hero, Palemon, and is astonished when she feels his heartbeat as she doesn't possess a heart. Palemon deserts Berta, whom he has been courting, and decides to marry Ondine. During a particularly strong storm while at sea, Ondine is lost overboard. Palemon survives the shipwreck created by the angry Ondines and, believing Ondine is lost, ends up marrying Berta. Ondine returns, however, and is heartbroken when she discovers Palemon's unfaithfulness. When she kisses him, he dies and she brings his body back into the sea with her forever. In the published score, as with the title of the ballet, Henze also retained the original spellings of the character names. The London ballet production was given as Ondine, but the score was titled Undine, and names the lead character as Undine. Henze also uses the original name Beatrice rather than Berta. Ondine (Undine) The title role is undoubtedly the main focus of the ballet. She is a gentle water sprite who the audience discovers dancing in a waterfall and then with her own shadow. Her love for Palemon is deep, which is what makes his unfaithfulness so devastating and dramatic. Palemon The male lead is bewitched by the feminine allure of Ondine. He has never seen a creature as lovely as her and decides to marry Ondine, forsaking his betrothed, Beatrice (Berta). Similar to the Prince in Swan Lake, Palemon is destroyed by breaking the trust of his intended. Berta (Beatrice) She is the perfect female contrast to Ondine. Ondine belongs to the sea, whereas Berta is definitely from the land. She is manipulative, possessive and highly demanding, while Ondine is gentle and loving. Tirrenio He is the uncle of Ondine and also Lord of the Mediterranean Sea. He tries to warn Ondine that what she intends to do with Palemon goes against what is expected of her. When she chooses not to listen to his advice, he creates the conditions for a shipwreck where she is returned to the sea. When Ondine once again finds Palemon and realises how he has betrayed her, Tirrenio exacts a terrible revenge with his fellow Undines by causing death and destruction for all Palemon's guests.
Phaedra falls in love with her stepson Hippolytus, but after he rejects her she joins Aphrodite in seeking revenge and falsely accuses him to Theseus. Hippolytus dies, and Artemis resurrects him at Nemi under the name Virbius, where he struggles with a fragmented sense of identity before becoming King of the Woods.
In Thebes, Pentheus tries to suppress the cult of Dionysus, whose followers embrace ecstatic revelry. A stranger—Dionysus in disguise—draws the city into the cult and entrances Pentheus, who goes to the mountain dressed as a woman. Dionysus’s spell reaches Pentheus’s mother Agave and sister Autonoë; Pentheus is torn apart, and Agave unknowingly cradles his head as the city falls.
In 1890s London, a society of bourgeois cats protects rats and raises the orphan mouse Louise. Lord Puff, his wife Minette, and Minette’s lover Tom are caught in a love triangle.
A one-act opera with singers and dancers, based on Shakespeare’s poem Venus and Adonis.
In an imaginary empire, a general suppresses a revolt, oversees executions, and later questions his role in war after learning he will go blind. Imprisoned in an asylum, he refuses the emperor’s order to return to battle. The regime blinds him to prevent a revolt, and the other inmates kill him.
Student Armand falls in love with Manon and runs away with her to Paris. Their relationship is strained by poverty, infidelity, and drug addiction. Manon returns to Armand, but when she shoots an older man during a confrontation, she is arrested as Armand escapes.
Set in summer and winter, the opera centers on Fusako Kuroda, her son Noboru, and merchant navy officer Ryuji Tsukazaki.
Prince Friedrich dreams of Princess Natalie during preparations for battle and attacks prematurely, though his cavalry succeeds. The Elector arrests him for disobedience and expects to ratify a death sentence. Natalie frees Friedrich, while the Elector decides to pardon him; at the supposed execution, he instead grants Friedrich her hand.
Sir Edgar, an aloof English gentleman, arrives in a German town with an entourage and animals, then invites a circus troupe into his mansion. Months later, his nephew Lord Barrat is presented to the townspeople, who imitate his eccentric behavior. At a dance, Barrat’s clothes fall away and reveal him to be a trained ape.
A leftist intellectual is lured toward Natascha Ungeheuer’s apartment, a “siren of a false Utopia.” He resists going all the way to her apartment but has not yet found a path to revolution. The allegory satirizes people who preach socialist values while retaining a bourgeois lifestyle.
A country doctor is summoned to a distant house to treat a seriously ill boy. His maid Rosa cannot find a horse, but a mysterious stable boy arrives with horses and assaults her. The doctor is transported to the patient’s house and worries about Rosa. The boy has a deep wound and begs to die. His family forces the doctor into the boy’s bed, threatening him if the patient is not healed. The doctor escapes on a horse but cannot return home and is condemned to travel eternally.
At an inn in the Austrian Alps, poet Gregor Mittenhofer uses those around him—including his secretary, doctor, young muse Elisabeth, and a widow troubled by visions—as material for his art. When a young man arrives and attracts Elisabeth, Mittenhofer lets the couple go into a snowstorm without warning them. They die, and he turns the tragedy into a wordless elegy.
Art student Gisela visits Naples with her German boyfriend Hanspeter and falls in love with Gennaro, a young actor playing Pulcinella. They flee to Germany, but after arriving in Oberhausen they have nowhere to stay; Gisela dreams that Hanspeter and his friends attack them as Vesuvius erupts.
After the governor casts the king into the forest as a child, he returns to claim his kingdom. The governor tricks him into returning to the forest, where he becomes a stag. The king eventually returns, the governor is killed, and the king regains human form.
Al Radshi sends his three sons to find his vanished golden hoopoe, but only the honest Al Kasim undertakes the quest. With a demon’s help, he finds the bird, rescues a captive princess, and obtains a magic chest. His jealous brothers push him and the princess into a well and claim his achievements, but the pair are rescued and the brothers expelled. Al Kasim must complete another quest before he can marry the princess, and the ending leaves their union unresolved.
Ondine bears a resemblance to The Little Mermaid. The story derives from Fouqué's novella Undine, the tale of a water-nymph who marries a mortal. Similar to other 19th century fairy tales, the plot is based on man (Palemon) encountering the supernatural (the water nymph Ondine), but the outcome is rather different from many of the 19th century classics: here, it is the man that dies, and the female character survives. Ondine makes her first entrance from a fountain, shivering in the cold air as we would in water, and dances with her shadow, which she has never seen before. She meets the hero, Palemon, and is astonished when she feels his heartbeat as she doesn't possess a heart. Palemon deserts Berta, whom he has been courting, and decides to marry Ondine. During a particularly strong storm while at sea, Ondine is lost overboard. Palemon survives the shipwreck created by the angry Ondines and, believing Ondine is lost, ends up marrying Berta. Ondine returns, however, and is heartbroken when she discovers Palemon's unfaithfulness. When she kisses him, he dies and she brings his body back into the sea with her forever. In the published score, as with the title of the ballet, Henze also retained the original spellings of the character names. The London ballet production was given as Ondine, but the score was titled Undine, and names the lead character as Undine. Henze also uses the original name Beatrice rather than Berta. Ondine (Undine) The title role is undoubtedly the main focus of the ballet. She is a gentle water sprite who the audience discovers dancing in a waterfall and then with her own shadow. Her love for Palemon is deep, which is what makes his unfaithfulness so devastating and dramatic. Palemon The male lead is bewitched by the feminine allure of Ondine. He has never seen a creature as lovely as her and decides to marry Ondine, forsaking his betrothed, Beatrice (Berta). Similar to the Prince in Swan Lake, Palemon is destroyed by breaking the trust of his intended. Berta (Beatrice) She is the perfect female contrast to Ondine. Ondine belongs to the sea, whereas Berta is definitely from the land. She is manipulative, possessive and highly demanding, while Ondine is gentle and loving. Tirrenio He is the uncle of Ondine and also Lord of the Mediterranean Sea. He tries to warn Ondine that what she intends to do with Palemon goes against what is expected of her. When she chooses not to listen to his advice, he creates the conditions for a shipwreck where she is returned to the sea. When Ondine once again finds Palemon and realises how he has betrayed her, Tirrenio exacts a terrible revenge with his fellow Undines by causing death and destruction for all Palemon's guests.
Phaedra falls in love with her stepson Hippolytus, but after he rejects her she joins Aphrodite in seeking revenge and falsely accuses him to Theseus. Hippolytus dies, and Artemis resurrects him at Nemi under the name Virbius, where he struggles with a fragmented sense of identity before becoming King of the Woods.
In Thebes, Pentheus tries to suppress the cult of Dionysus, whose followers embrace ecstatic revelry. A stranger—Dionysus in disguise—draws the city into the cult and entrances Pentheus, who goes to the mountain dressed as a woman. Dionysus’s spell reaches Pentheus’s mother Agave and sister Autonoë; Pentheus is torn apart, and Agave unknowingly cradles his head as the city falls.
In 1890s London, a society of bourgeois cats protects rats and raises the orphan mouse Louise. Lord Puff, his wife Minette, and Minette’s lover Tom are caught in a love triangle.
A one-act opera with singers and dancers, based on Shakespeare’s poem Venus and Adonis.
In an imaginary empire, a general suppresses a revolt, oversees executions, and later questions his role in war after learning he will go blind. Imprisoned in an asylum, he refuses the emperor’s order to return to battle. The regime blinds him to prevent a revolt, and the other inmates kill him.