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Tuttifäntchen

Weihnachtsmärchen mit Gesang und Tanz in drei Bildern von Hedwig Michel und Franziska Becker
Master Tuttifant has barely finished carving his Punch and Judy made from fir wood, when the Tuttifäntchen [the mini Tuttifant] suddenly comes to life, running away with Master Tuttifant’s daughter, Trudel, the very same evening. At the Christmas market, Tuttifäntchen lures the small fir trees back into the forest. There, amongst the natural surroundings, is their real home, and Tuttifäntchen becomes part of a large tree again. Trudel is reunited with her family and they are all able to enjoy a joyous Christmas celebration together. Paul Hindemith, Hedwig Michel and Franziska Becker met at the Neues Theater in Frankfurt where they worked together on several fairy tales for the stage. Becker’s most recent Christmas play at this time had been conceived jointly with Hedwig Michel and was performed in Darmstadt in 1922 accompanied by Hindemith’s catchy music, ranging from the Dance of the Wooden Dolls to well-known Christmas carols. The fate of the three authors was unfortunately not a happy one: both Hindemith and Hedwig Michel were forced to emigrate to the USA and Franziska Becker remained in Frankfurt where she took her own life after expropriation and further harassment by the Nazis.
Edition: Performance material

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Description

CONTENT
Shortly before Christmas, Punoni, the director of a Punch and Judy show, orders a new Punch to be made by the widowed master woodcarver Tuttifant. During its construction, the puppet comes to life: a miracle that only takes place once every 1000 years. The new Punch receives the name Tuttifäntchen, but as he was created without a heart, he gets up to constant mischief. With his magic powers, he snatches out the heart of Tuttifant’s daughter Trudel who is on the search for the star which her dead mother had thrown down to her from heaven which is only visible at Christmas. Tuttifäntchen proceeds through the town with Trudel, getting up to his usual tricks along the way. He finally discovers the fir tree from which the wood was taken for his construction on his path through the forest and is transformed back into a part of this tree. Trudel, who without her heart only has a short time to live, finds refuge with Berthe who promises to be a new mother to her. Berthe’s son Peter, Tuttifant’s apprentice finds Trudel at his mother’s house and returns Trudel’s heart. When the church bells start ringing in the town, the star of Trudel’s dead mother appears above Tuttifäntchen’s fir tree.

COMMENTARY

In the autumn of 1922, Hindemith agreed on a collaboration with two Frankfurt authors Hedwig Michel and Franziska Becker who subsequently provided the libretto for the Christmas fairy tale Tuttifäntchen. The 16 musical numbers were completed by the end of October and were immediately prepared for printing to be ready for the première in Darmstadt on 13 December. The Christmas fairy tale was repeated three days later at the Frankfurt Opera House conducted by Hindemith’s subsequent father-in-law Ludwig Rottenberg. The work experienced further performances up to 1933. Although the libretto met with unanimous criticism, several critics at least acknowledged Hindemith’s willingness to have even undertaken this type of project: ‘How many composers would be able to do this or would dare to undertake this type of composition: irrespective of any claims to artistic fame, simply producing music with extremely limited resources, in part in voluntary dependence on the precious treasure trove of folk music, freely and frankly singing about a fir tree and conjuring up a wooden puppet, the devil and the beating heart of a child in such simple and yet such original musical language?’ (Karl Holl) The music for this Christmas fairy tale was an occasional composition produced alongside Hindemith’s major works at a time when these works had caused a sensation at the Donaueschingen Music Festival in the summer of 1922, notably the Kammermusik No. 1 Op. 24 No. 1, and had given Hindemith the reputation of a ‘bad boy’. The 16 songs and orchestral pieces in Tuttifäntchen are harmonically traditional and simple in style and for the most part based on folk songs and Christmas carols. Hindemith also integrates elements of light music such as the foxtrot in ‘Tanz der Holzpuppen’ [Dance of the wooden puppets]. The music is technically unsophisticated and therefore also suitable for a performance by children and young persons. Hindemith rejected the idea proposed by his publishers in 1925 of producing a version for salon orchestra, not least because he himself considered the music to be ‘overtly naive’. An orchestral suite consisting of eleven musical numbers was however published in 1969. (S. Sch.-G.)

Orchestral Cast

1 (auch Picc.) · 1 · 1 · 1 - 1 · 1 · 0 · 0 - P. S. (Glsp. · Tamb. · kl. Tr. · gr. Tr. m. Beck.) (1 Spieler) - Str.

Cast

Gesangspartien: Meister Tuttifant, ein Holzschnitzer - Trudel, seine Tochter - Peter, der Lehrbub - Mutter Berthe, Peters Mutter - Meister Punoni, Besitzer eines Kasperltheaters - Tuttifäntchen, ein Holzkasperl -
Sprechrollen: Nachbarn (Stoffel, Klaus, Hannes) - Kinder (Grete, Fritz, Lene) - Der Bürgermeister - Der Zuckerbäcker - Der Waffelverkäufer - Die Obstfrau - Kinder, Dorfleute, Nachbarn - Holzkasperle

More Information

Title:
Tuttifäntchen
Weihnachtsmärchen mit Gesang und Tanz in drei Bildern von Hedwig Michel und Franziska Becker
Language:
German
Edition:
Performance material
Publisher/Label:
Schott Music
Year of composition:
1922
World Premiere:
December 13, 1922 · Darmstadt (D)
Hessisches Landestheater
Conductor: Walther Beck
Original staging: Friedrich Schramm · Costumes: Viktor Storck; Margarete Hess · Set design: Franz Langer
(scenic)

Technical Details

Product number:
LS 2285-01

Preview/Media Contents

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Performances

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  • Tuttifäntchen
    Conductor: David Švec
    Orchestra: Orchestr Národního divadla
    December 14, 2023 | Praha (Czech Republic) , Stavovské divadlo
  • Tuttifäntchen
    Conductor: David Švec
    Orchestra: Orchestr Národního divadla
    December 14, 2023 | Praha (Czech Republic) , Stavovské divadlo
  • Tuttifäntchen
    Conductor: David Švec
    Orchestra: Orchestr Národního divadla
    December 13, 2023 | Praha (Czech Republic) , Stavovské divadlo
  • Tuttifäntchen
    Conductor: David Švec
    Orchestra: Orchestr Národního divadla
    December 13, 2023 | Praha (Czech Republic) , Stavovské divadlo
  • Tuttifäntchen
    Conductor: David Švec
    Orchestra: Orchestr Národního divadla
    December 12, 2023 | Praha (Czech Republic) , Stavovské divadlo
  • Set Ascending Direction

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