Pollicino

Pollicino and his six brothers live with their parents in poor circumstances. The father is a woodcutter and has earned no money for months; he can no longer feed his family. He and his wife decide to leave the children out in the forest. The first attempt fails thanks to the observant Pollicino, who has overheard his parents and marked the path through the forest with stones. When he and his brothers arrive back home, the father has meanwhile received his pay and everything seems to be turning out well. Their happiness does not last, however, and soon the children find themselves once more alone in the forest, this time without Pollicino being able to do anything about it. The forest animals help them and reveal that a house is hidden nearby; the wolf takes Pollicino there. Unfortunately the house belongs to a cannibal who lives there with his wife and seven daughters. He wants to eat the children right away but allows himself to be convinced by his wife, who has grown fond of the children, to put off the banquet until the next day. The children are locked into a room in which the seven daughters live. Clotilde, the eldest of the daughters, reveals to Pollicino that she and her sisters have long wanted to run away from home. Together, the children turn this plan into reality. They have almost managed to get out of the forest when their way is blocked by a river in spate. With enormous shared effort and with the help of the animals, they manage to overcome the river; in the midst of all this, Pollicino and Clotilde realise that they have fallen in love with each other. 

"This work has been written with the intention, not only to teach but also to entertain. The children who take part should be led into the music as in a game. The adventure of such a performance by the children should have the happy outcome that they become aware that, all at once, they have taken a step into musical reality. Somehow, all the children who take part in Pollicino will, without exception, have become something like musicians, one child more, another child less, that does not matter: music has found its way into their delicate and fragile lives and they will, I hope, never want to be separated from that most faithful of all allies."