XVI

OPERA SYNOPSES

Some Sample Outlines of Grand Opera Plots For Home Study.

I

DIE MEISTER-GENOSSENSCHAFT

SCENE:  The Forests of Germany.

TIME:  Antiquity.

CAST

  STRUDEL, God of Rain Basso

  SCHMALZ, God of Slight Drizzle Tenor

  IMMERGLUeCK, Goddess of the Six Primary Colors Soprano

  LUDWIG DAS EIWEISS, the Knight of the Iron Duck Baritone

  THE WOODPECKER Soprano

ARGUMENT

The basis of “Die Meister-Genossenschaft” is an old legend of Germany which tells how the Whale got his Stomach.

ACT I

The Rhine at Low Tide Just Below Weldschnoffen.—­Immerglueck has grown weary of always sitting on the same rock with the same fishes swimming by every day, and sends for Schwuel to suggest something to do.  Schwuel asks her how she would like to have pass before her all the wonders of the world fashioned by the hand of man.  She says, rotten.  He then suggests that Ringblattz, son of Pflucht, be made to appear before her and fight a mortal combat with the Iron Duck.  This pleases Immerglueck and she summons to her the four dwarfs:  Hot Water, Cold Water, Cool, and Cloudy.  She bids them bring Ringblattz to her.  They refuse, because Pflucht has at one time rescued them from being buried alive by acorns, and, in a rage, Immerglueck strikes them all dead with a thunderbolt.

ACT 2

A Mountain Pass.—­Repenting of her deed, Immerglueck has sought advice of the giants, Offen and Besitz, and they tell her that she must procure the magic zither which confers upon its owner the power to go to sleep while apparently carrying on a conversation.  This magic zither has been hidden for three hundred centuries in an old bureau drawer, guarded by the Iron Duck, and, although many have attempted to rescue it, all have died of a strange ailment just as success was within their grasp.

But Immerglueck calls to her side Dampfboot, the tinsmith of the gods, and bids him make for her a tarnhelm or invisible cap which will enable her to talk to people without their understanding a word she says.  For a dollar and a half extra Dampfboot throws in a magic ring which renders its wearer insensible.  Thus armed, Immerglueck starts out for Walhalla, humming to herself.

ACT 3

The Forest Before the Iron Duck’s Bureau Drawer.—­Merglitz, who has up till this time held his peace, now descends from a balloon and demands the release of Betty.  It has been the will of Wotan that Merglitz and Betty should meet on earth and hate each other like poison, but Zweiback, the druggist of the gods, has disobeyed and concocted a love-potion which has rendered the young couple very unpleasant company.  Wotan, enraged, destroys them with a protracted heat spell.