Das Wundertheater

A troupe of street performers arrives in a small town led by Chanfalla, the director of the theatre of illusions. Their plan is to lead the haughty citizens up the garden path and prove that fine appearances are more powerful and seductive than reality. Chanfalla promises the citizens a unique theatre performance with wonderful sensations never seen before. These sensations however can only be perceived by those who were sired within a respectable Christian family – bastards are excluded from the pleasures of these miraculous events. All dignitaries of the town assemble for the spectacle.
No-one wishes to admit to carrying the aforementioned stigma in front of the others; all go into extravagant rhapsodies about the action on the stage – although no-one can have seen anything as the actors do not perform anything. A forager happens to come past during the event, recognises the deception and exposes the citizens who still continue to maintain to have seen a miraculous performance in all its glory. They subsequently give the seemingly dishonourable forager a beating.

"Henze originally conceived Das Wundertheater in 1948 for actors and not for singers. The revised version of the work dating from 1964 was an assimilation of his collected experiences within the operatic genre with works such as Boulevard Solitude (1951), König Hirsch (1953-56) and Der Prinz von Homburg (1958/59). The version compiled by Henning Brauel in 1965 for the Berliner Festwochen scored for actors and five musicians provides the renewed opportunity for a performance of the acted version on a more intimate scale." (Rainer Schochow)