Gold
Children's opera by Leonard Evers (*1985)
Libretto by Flora Verbrugge after «The Fisherman and His Wife» by the Brothers Grimm
Duration 50 Min. Without intermission.
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Gold
Abstract
Gold
Jacob and his parents are poor. So poor that they cannot even afford to pay for an apartment and are forced to reside in a hole under a tree. Jacob goes fishing with his father at sea. Today, Jacob catches a special fish. «Please, throw me back into the sea», says the fish, «throw me back in and let me live – whatever you want, I shall give you!» Jacob is so bewildered that he drops the fish back into the sea. He later realises that he should have wished for a pair of shoes. The next day he goes back to the sea and calls the fish. Immediately, a brand-new pair of shoes shines on his feet. Jacob’s parents are angry. Why didn’t he wish for a house? The next day, Jacob goes to the sea again, and the fish once again fulfils his wish, as he does all the other, increasingly excessive wishes with which Jacob’s parents charge him. The fish becomes thinner and thinner, and the sea ever wilder… The young Dutch composer Leonard Evers has created an enchanting children’s opera for a mezzo-soprano and percussionist from the well-known fairy tale about the fisherman and his wife.