Synopsis

On today’s date in 1910, the Metropolitan Opera premiered a new opera by German composer Engelbert Humperdinck, already famous for his opera Hansel and Gretel. This new opera was also a fairytale and titled Königskinder or The Royal Children.

The female lead role of the Goose Girl was sung by Geraldine Farrar, admired back then for both her vocal and physical beauty. Farrar wasn’t scared of geese, either. She convinced both Humperdinck and Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the Met’s manager, to add a touch of verismo to the staging.

In her autobiography, Farrar writes: “Humperdinck was not a little taken aback when I mentioned that I intended having live geese which were to move naturally and unconfined about the stage … The conductor was much perturbed and objected to the noise and confusion they might create; but Mr. Gatti was resigned to my whim … So with the help of … the ‘boys’ behind the stage I had as pretty a flock of birds as one could find on any farm. When the curtain rose upon that idyllic forest scene, with the goose girl in the grass, the geese unconcernedly picking their way about, now and again spreading snowy wings, unafraid, the [audience] was simply delighted and applauded long and vigorously.”

Unlike Hansel and Gretel, Königskinder had an unhappy fairy-tale ending, and despite some really lovely music, it’s seldom staged these days — with or without live geese.

Music Played in Today's Program

Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921): Koenigskinder Excerpts