Opera Plots I - MDC Faculty Home Pages

from Brangaena, and come at once to bestow forgiveness upon the lovers and to magnanimously
permit them to be united; but Kurvenal, thinking he comes as a foe, gathers the attendants, and,
giving battle at the gates, is slain. King Mark, on entering, finds that he has come too late, since
his beloved Knight is already no more; and upon his dead body Isolda now falls expiring, her heart
breaking with the woeful grief she has been called upon to suffer.
191. BEARSKIN
Romantic Opera in Three Acts By Siegfried Wagner
Libretto By the Composer (Adapted from one of Grimms Fairy Tales)
First Produced Munich, January, 1899
Chief Characters Louise, Hans Kraft (Bearskin), The Devil, The Stranger (St Peter)
THE scene is laid in the Hummelgau district. Hans Kraft, a soldier, returns from the Thirty Years
War to his native village, where he learns that his mother and all his relations are dead, and his
own existence is completely forgotten by the villagers, who treat him with such scant ceremony
that he goes forth into the forest, full of indignation and misery. Here he is met by the Devil, who,
in the guise of a merry fellow, soon makes his acquaintance, and endeavours to get him into his
toils, and so gain his soul. Hans, seeing his horns and hoofs, recognises the true identity of his
companion, but is nevertheless so friendless and reckless that when the Devil presently offers him
a job, he accepts it, and begins work at once. His duties are to stoke the fires in the infernal
regions, and to keep boiling the great cauldrons in which the souls of the Devils victims are being
tormented. The Devil, being well satisfied with his new assistant, leaves him in entire charge; and
Hans works contentedly enough, being specially pleased on discovering that one of the tormented
souls is that of a surly corporal who in the old days had treated him very badly. One day he
receives a visit from one who calls himself "The Stranger," or Peter the Doorkeeper, who is, in
reality, Saint Peter, who has come to try and save some of the lost souls from the seething
cauldron, and who therefore offers to throw dice with the stoker - the stake to be money if Hans
wins, and the lost souls if the Stranger wins. Hans agrees, and the game begins, with the result that
the stoker loses; and the Stranger departs rejoicing with all the souls from the cauldron, which he
has won. He tells the disconsolate Hans to bear patiently the punishment which will presently fall
upon him, and to keep out of the Devils way in future, when great happiness will be his. The Devil
now appears, and, furious at the loss of his souls, he transforms Hans into a hideous black
creature, covered with a grimy bearskin, and condemns him to remain in this repulsive state until
he can find a maiden who will love him in spite of his dreadful appearance, and remain true to him
for three years. He gives him a gold ring, which he is to split on obtaining such a maidens
promise, each keeping half; and at the end of the three years, if the gold is still bright, it will be a
sign of the girls fidelity, and the sufferer will be free from his punishment and will obtain his
rightful form once more. Full of despair, Hans wanders forth in his hideous guise, feeling he will
never gain release; for all the maidens fly from him in terror, and he receives the name of
"Bearskin." The Devil has, however, given him a magic scrip, or pocket, from which he can
always draw forth gold pieces; and, in Act 2, he is seen at a village inn, where he succeeds in
making friends with the Burgo-master, by paying for him a heavy debt he owes to the innkeeper.
In return, on hearing his story, the Burgomaster, impressed by his evidently unlimited wealth,
declares he shall take the chance of asking his three daughters in turn if they will accept the half of