König Hirsch


König Hirsch is an opera in three acts by Hans Werner Henze to a German libretto by after Il re cervo, a theatrical fable by Carlo Gozzi. He revised it as Il re cervo, premiered in 1963 at the Staatstheater Kassel.

Performance history

König Hirsch was first performed in a drastically shortened version by the Städtische Oper Berlin on 23 September 1956 in the Theater des Westens with staging by Jean Pierre Ponnelle and conducted by Hermann Scherchen, as a highlight of the Berliner Festwochen 1956.
It was rewritten as Il re cervo, oder Die Irrfahrten der Wahrheit and performed at the Staatstheater Kassel on 10 March 1963. This version was also produced at the Santa Fe Opera on 4 August 1965. The complete, original form of König Hirsch was given for the first time on 5 May 1985 at the Staatsoper Stuttgart.

Roles

Synopsis

The king, who has been cast into the forest as a child by the governor, returns to his kingdom. However he is tricked by the governor and forced to go back to the forest where he turns into a stag. Eventually he goes back once again, the governor is killed, and he is transformed again into human form.

Instrumentation">Instrumentation (music)">Instrumentation

To date the opera has not been recorded in its entirety. An excerpt from a performance recorded by the Südwestrundfunk Stuttgart in 1985 is included as part of: