Opera Plots I - MDC Faculty Home Pages

On being bidden by the stranger to save her son from murder, Penelope now declares she will give
her hand to whosoever shall be victorious in the contests on the morrow at the Festival of Apollo.
During the struggle, Hyperion has been mortally wounded; and as he raves of his love for the
Queen during his last moments, Odysseus has a doubt of Penelope's seem-ing virtue; but on her
presently entreating his assist-ance against her insolent suitors, and seeing that she has no love for
any but her absent husband, he is satisfied, and promises her happiness on the morrow. He will not
yet reveal himself; and on the next day, at the Festival of Apollo, the contests take place. Penelope
appears, and in accordance with her word given the night before, declares that she will give herself
to the competitor who shall succeed in bending her lost husband's mighty bow and shoot an arrow
with it through a range of twelve rings. The suitors, all eager for the prize, try in turn; but none of
them are able to bend the bow of the great hero. Then the beggar-stranger takes up the weapon,
and, bend-ing it without effort, shoots the arrow clearly through the twelve rings; and amidst the
acclamations of the assembled people he casts aside his humble garment and stands before them
all in glittering armour, revealing himself at last as their long-lost King. But Odysseus will not
acknowledge their welcome until he has punished those who have insulted his wife and conspired
against his son; and he does not rest until he has slain all his enemies, who are filled with dis-may
at sight of the returned hero, and with awe at the mystical figure of Pallas Athene, who appears in
the air beside him. When justice has been done, how-ever, then Odysseus folds his beloved and
faithful wife to his heart; and Athene bestows upon the reunited pair her Divine blessing.
27. ODYSSEUS' DEATH
Grand Opera in Three Acts By August Bungert
Libretto, adapted from Homer's "Odyssey." By August Bungert
First Produced Dresden
Chief Characters Despoina, Circe, Penelope, Odysseus, Telegonos, Telemachus
THIS is the finale of Bungert's great " Tetralogy." It opens in Circe's garden, where Telegonos, the
hero-son of the enchantress and Odysseus, is amusing himself with a lion. He is now fifteen years
of age, and eager to hear about his hero-father, of whom Circe has often spoken but never revealed
his true identity. On now hearing from her for the first time the story of her love for the hero, and
his subsequent desertion of her in favour of his own land and fair wife, Penelope, Telegonos
announces his intention to take up the cudgels on his mother's behalf, and to bring back his truant
father to her side once more; and bidding the enchantress farewell he sets forth on his quest. The
next scene takes us to Thesprotia, where Odysseus has just returned from gaining the victory over
the followers of the importunate suitors he had slain on his return from his wanderings; and here
he is distressed to find that his son, Telemachus, has fallen in love with the captured Queen of
Thesprotia, Despoina, an unscrupulous and dangerously fascinating woman, who has quickly
gained a hold on the youth by her bewildering witcheries. Odysseus, however, orders her to be
conveyed to the Grove of Dodona, there to have her fate decided by the famous oracle. Here, to
the surprise and anger of Odysseus, the Pleaides appear, forbidding the execution of Despoina,
who must be left for Zeus to deal with; and when the angry King still declares that the captive
shall die, the mystical three prophesy that the dis-obedient mortal shall come to an untimely end
and be slain by his own son. In the second act, Telegonos is seen landing at Ithaca, where, with his
soldiers, he is prepared to seek out his father and demand satisfaction from him; and here he is met