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The Tsar wants his photograph taken
Opera Buffa in 1 act
Libretto by Georg Kaiser
First performed February 18 1928, Neues Theater Leipzig
The Clever Woman
12 scenes
Libretto by the composer
First performed February 20 1943, Oper Frankfurt!
This production first seen April 9 2023
Sung in German with German & English surtitles
Introductory talks (in German) in the Holzfoyer 30 minutes before curtain up, available here on video shortly before opening night and everywhere where podcasts are to be found.
The Tsar wants his photo taken in Angèle’s Paris Studio – right away. A wish conveyed by telephone. A gang of conspirators get wind of this and want to jump at the chance to assassinate him. The revolutionaries get into the studio, overpower the photographer Angèle and install a pistol in her camera. When the Tsar enters with his companion he meets »bogus Angèle« – one of the assassins, pretending to be the photographer. A serious flirt begins, which teeters between real passion and life or death, although it’s not really clear who’s really in control. But before either of them can take a shot, the conspiracy is unearthed. The assassins manage to get away, the Tsar insists on his portrait.
If only the farmer had listened to His Clever Daughter ... she told him not to give a golden mortar – unearthed while working the land – to the King. But, duty bound, he handed it over, earning him suspicions instead of a reward: certain that the farmer's kept the pestle, he has him thrown into the tower. The King wants to test the farmer’s daughter’s cleverness. He gives her three riddles. If she can solve them, he’ll let her go otherwise, the noose awaits. Child’s play for the clever girl. The King’s so impressed that he makes her his wife.
A furious argument ensues between a man with a donkey and a man with a mule over a foal. They go before the King, to judge the case. The muleteer bribes anyone who might help him win – including three rogues dressed as judges, who comment gleefully on the King’s unfair ruling against the donkey owner, who reflects in despair on his situation. The clever girl appears, not revealing that she is, in fact, the Queen. She speaks to him kindly and says she might be able to turn the tide. When the clever girl admonishes the King about his unfair ruling he chucks her out, giving her a trunk in which she can take »whatever her heart treasures most« with her … Which is him, when he wakes up inside it after a sleeping potion his clever wife administered to him.
A Tsar, wanting to have his photograph taken has no idea he’s surrounded by conspirator’s planning his assassination. And a young woman, who can outsmart anybody – even a King.
Kurt Weill’s turbulent Zeitoper The Tsar wants his Photograph Taken and Carl Orff’s amusing-serious fairy tale The Clever Woman were written in times of upheaval – in the late 1920s and just before the end of World War II. Their scores aimed to make a powerful impact on stage, with Weill echoing popular 1920s music and Orff with his crafty use of music in speech.
In Keith Warner’s direction the two works make for a double bill bristling with energy, wit and irony, lending political dimensions to even children’s games.
