Das Wundertheater (Le théâtre merveilleux)

The earliest and now obsolete version of this piece (first performed in Heidelberg, 1949) was scored for actors and orchestra. This revised version of 1964 has recast the actors' parts into roles for singers. In addition, a scaled-down orchestration was made to suit performances in small theatres. The Magic Theatre is suitable as one part of a triptych, of which A Country Doctor forms the centre and The End of a World the third part. The Magic Theatre can still be performed with actors: for a production given at the Schiller Theatre in Berlin, on 30 September 1965 at the Berlin Festwochen, Henning Brauel made a version for a small ensemble designed to be performed in small theatres. This version ensures that the actors' voices are not drowned out by the instruments. - Hans Werner Henze