Act II. Three years have passed. In the house of the innkeeper
_Colas_, now as brave as before, having been wounded in battle with the invading enemy, _Captain Gontran_ finds himself received as a severely wounded person. He loves his nurse _Christine_ with all his heart and she also is attached to him. He even has a claim upon her as having been once a substitute for her brother, but he will not force her affections, and besides, he no longer has "the golden cross." _Christine_ too dares not follow her inclinations for, as _Gontran_ tells her that it was he who went to the war, she would offend him very much if she, true to her oath, should ask for the cross. This also reappears. A cripple, in whom one would scarcely recognize the former stalwart _Sergeant Bombardon_, is the bearer. _Christine's_ heart nearly breaks, but she does not hesitate to keep her word. But no! _Bombardon_ is not an impostor. He got the cross from a dying man. Yet, who is this? Dare he trust his eyes? The man whom he believed dead comes out of the house. It is _Gontran_. What happiness for the two lovers!
VERSIEGELT
SEALED IN
Opera in one act after Raupach. Music by Blech. Words by Richard Batka and Pordes-Milo. Produced: Hamburg, November 4, 1908.
CHARACTERS
BRAUN, a burgomaster _Baritone_ ELSE, his daughter _Soprano_ FRAU GERTRUD, a young widow _Mezzo-Soprano_ FRAU WILLMERS _Alto_ BERTEL, her son, a court clerk _Tenor_ LAMPE, a bailiff _Bass_
_Time_--1830.
_Place_--A small German town.
In the centre of the whole scene stands a sideboard. This same sideboard belongs to _Frau Willmers_ who now comes running to the apartment of the pretty young widow, _Gertrud_, with every sign of agitation, to tell her that the bailiff, _Lampe_, intends to seize her sideboard, an old and valuable heirloom. The burgomaster bears her ill will because her son _Bertel_ has been casting eyes at his daughter _Else_, and now takes occasion to inflict on her this disgrace. To escape this she begs her lodger the favour of taking in the sideboard for her. _Frau Gertrud_ is very willing. She has a grudge against the burgomaster. He used to call on her almost every day, and _Frau Gertrud_ allowed herself to hope that sometime she would become the _Frau_ burgomistress. Nevertheless, she would very willingly accelerate his decision. Scarcely is the sideboard, with the help of a neighbour, happily installed at _Frau Gertrud's_ than _Bertel_, _Frau Willmers'_ son and the burgomaster's daughter _Else_ enter. They have made every effort to make the burgomaster kindly disposed but it was in vain. But as the couple have decided not to give up each other, they have come to _Frau Gertrud_ to beg her influence with the burgomaster. When she thus receives confirmation of her suspicion of the burgomaster's liking for her, she naturally is not averse to the rôle of matchmaker. Out of her beautiful dreams of the future the young woman, left alone by her neighbours, is aroused by a knock. But it is not the burgomaster, whom she secretly expected, but the bailiff, _Lampe_. Loquacious, conceited, and intrusive, he begins by telling her all his merits and his skill, brings greetings to the widow, as the burgomaster has commissioned him. The sideboard seems to him very suspicious. So now he will go only to _Frau Willmers'_ to convince himself whether his suspicion is well founded. As soon as he has gone the burgomaster comes. He also makes use of evasions and then confides to his gentle friend the anxieties of a father. It grieves him very much that his _Else_ loves this _Bertel_, son of his bitterest enemy, who is now dead. _Frau Gertrud_, however, interests her self bravely in favour of her protégés. Her remark that the burgomaster surely has not a heart of stone, brings him nearer to realizing his own condition. Instead of the children he now talks of himself. First he is seeking for a sign that she means well by him with her advice. Soon she has led him so far that he confesses his love for her and begs a kiss. The twilight that has begun favours the idyll. Then again comes the trouble-maker _Lampe_. Nothing worse can happen to the couple than to be discovered by this gossiper. So the burgomaster must hide in order to save his own and _Frau Gertrud's_ reputation. But where? There is nothing better than the empty sideboard. Scarcely has the somewhat corpulent burgomaster fortunately concealed himself in it than _Lampe_ enters the apartment and, "In the name of the authorities" seals up the sideboard. Unfortunately the burgomaster in his hiding place finds himself not so quiet as caution demanded. The sound does not escape _Lampe_ and his evil thoughts scent here something very improper. Surely there is a lover concealed in the sideboard, and he goes away with the malicious idea of finding the burgomaster to tell him that _Frau Gertrud_ is not the right sort of woman for him. But _Frau Gertrud_ is sure of her point and, as _Bertel_ and _Else_ also come in with _Frau Willmers_, a plot is soon concocted by the four so that the happiness of everybody will result from this favourable accident. The two women leave the young couple alone so that through a put-up game on the father everything will be obtained. _Else_ plays the lovesick girl, _Bertel_ on the other hand the virtuous one whose respect for the burgomaster knows no bounds. So he refuses to accept _Else's_ love against the will of her father and she, desperate, wants to run away when a voice proceeds from the sideboard. Now the father and burgomaster must humbly beg of his clerk that he take upon himself the offence of breaking the seal and letting him out of the sideboard. Naturally, the first takes place after _Else_ has dictated the marriage contract. The burgomaster, who at all hazards must get out before _Lampe_ comes back, consents to everything. _Bertel_ employs his profession in writing out the whole contract and through a peephole in the sideboard the burgomaster has to sign it before the door is finally opened to him. But he makes his terms. In place of himself, _Bertel_ and _Else_ must enter the sideboard. Naturally they do not hesitate long and they are for the first time together undisturbed within it. The burgomaster has concealed himself in the next room when the two women come back with a gay company. (The following very indelicate passage, which endangers all the sympathy of the audience for _Frau Gertrud_, might easily be cut out.) _Frau Gertrud_ has brought people from a nearby shooters' festival to show them the trapped burgomaster, evidently because she believes her scheme more assured thus. All the greater is the astonishment when the young couple step out of the opened sideboard. But the burgomaster all of a sudden appears in the background. Then _Frau Gertrud_ cleverly takes everything on herself. She had shut up the young couple in it and had spread the report that the burgomaster was concealed in it in order that he might be affected by it and could no longer oppose the union of the two young people. Surely everything is solved satisfactorily when _Lampe_ arrives with every sign of agitation. He has not found the burgomaster, and _Else_ and the clerk of the court have disappeared. The burgomaster must certainly have been murdered by the clerk. _Lampe_ rages so long in the excessive indignation of his official power that he himself is shut up in the sideboard and the others, now undisturbed, seal their compact and reseal it.
DER TROMPETER VON SÄKKINGEN
THE TRUMPETER OF SÄKKINGEN
Opera in three acts and a Prologue; music by Viktor E. Nessler; text by Rudolf Bunge after Viktor von Scheffel's poem with the same title. Produced: Leipzig, May 4, 1884.
CHARACTERS
WERNER KIRCHHOFER _Baritone_ KONRADIN, a peasant _Bass_ THE STEWART _Tenor_ THE RECTOR _Bass_ BARON VON SCHÖNAU _Bass_ MARIA, his daughter _Soprano_ COUNT VON WILDENSTEIN _Bass_ HIS DIVORCED WIFE _Alto_ DAMIAN, Count von Wildenstein's son _Tenor_
Prologue. In the Heidelberg palace courtyard there is a merry company of students and peasants gathered in a drinking bout. The enthusiasm for "Old Heidelberg the fine" and for the gay life of a cavalier takes on such a noisy expression that the steward of the _Rector's_ wife orders them to be quiet. _Werner Kirchhofer_, a law student, leaps on a table, the peasant _Konradin_ lends him his trumpet and now there echoes forth the sweet song "which once the Palsgrave Friedrich sang" in honour of the "Palsgravin, the most beautiful of women." But the _Rector_ and the Senate entertain other views of the nightly noise of trumpets and the entire body of students is expelled. So they all seek to become cavaliers.