Opera Plots I - MDC Faculty Home Pages

Libretto By Mosenthal, adapted from the comedy of same title by Brazier and Melville
First Produced Berlin, December, 1875
Chief Characters Christine, Thérèse, Goutrau i 'Ancré, Bombardon, Nicholas
THE action takes place in the village of Mélun in the time of Napoleon. When the piece opens,
Nicholas, the owner of the village mill, is about to celebrate his marriage with his cousin, Thérèse,
when the soldiery appear, and the sergeant, Bom-bardon, summons him to join the ranks, since his
name is on the list of conscripts. The bride and bridegroom-elect are in despair that their happiness
should be thus shattered, and they entreat the sergeant to pass Nicholas this time; and their pleadings
are supported passionately by the bridegroom's sister, Christine, who has a great love for her
brother, who has always been her companion and charge. Bombardon, however, refuses to let
Nicholas off unless he can find a substitute; and then Christine declares that she will marry any
one who will offer himself in the place of her brother, giving him a golden cross from her neck to
be given to the volunteer as a pledge for his identity on returning from the wars. Amongst the
visitors to the village is a young French noble-man, Goutrau l'Ancré, who, hearing of the
difficulty, and being touched by the beauty and grief of Christine, offers himself as the required
substitute, and takes the golden cross as the pledge, setting out with the conscripts at once, without
having been seen by the delighted and grateful sister. The scene then closes with the wedding of
Nicholas and Thérèse, amidst the rejoicings of their friends. In Act 2 a couple of years have gone
by, and Goutrau l'Ancré, having been severely wounded, has been brought with some other
wounded comrades to Mélun, where he has been very tenderly nursed back to health by Christine,
who has now fallen in love with him, and whose love he returns. Christine, however, sadly tells
him that she regards herself as bound to the stranger who took her golden cross in pledge; but she
is filled with joy when Goutrau declares himself to be the volunteer who offered himself as
substitute for her brother, though he no longer possesses the golden cross, which he gave to a companion
on the battlefield when he believed himself to be dying. Their love-making is interrupted
by the entrance of Bombardon, who, thinking Goutrau to be dead, presents the golden cross to the
beautiful village maiden, whom he hopes thus to secure for his wife. Christine is now torn by
doubts of the hand-some stranger whom she has nursed back to life and loves so dearly, fearing
that he has not told her the truth, and that Bombardon himself must have been the volunteer; but
when Goutrau comes up to him with friendly greetings, the sergeant at once withdraws his claim,
and honestly bears witness to the fact that the young nobleman is indeed the volunteer who took
Christine's golden cross in pledge, and went to the wars as her brother's substitute. Thus all ends
well, and the happy Christine and her lover are united.
25. CIRCE
Grand Opera in Three Acts with Prologue By August Bungert
Libretto adapted from Homer's " Odyssey." By August Bungert
First Produced Dresden, January, 1898
Chief Characters Circe, Pallas Athene, Eos, Odysseus, Periander, Helios, Hermes
THIS is the first part of Bungert's "Tetralogy," having a very noble subject in Homer's " Odyssey."
It opens with a prologue showing the gods on Olympus, where Pallas Athene and Hermes
(Mercury) plead for the welfare of the great hero, Odysseus (Ulysses) whose strength and courage