Das Nusch-Nuschi

CONTENT
In the realm of the Emperor Mung Tha Bya, the servant Tum Tum embarks on the attempt to procure a woman from the emperor’s harem for his master Zatwai: this woman has displayed clear signs of interest in Mr Zatwai. On his way, Tum Tum encounters two Bayaderes who have also been invited by Zatwai and additionally a beggar who cynically warns his listeners to remember the transience of human existence almost in the manner of a court jester.
Tum Tum discovers that not just one but four of the harem ladies are prepared to embark on an affair with his master. Kamadewa, the god of desire who rides on a Nusch-Nuschi (“half large rat and half caiman”) gives a favourable prophesy to Tum Tum and disappears. The inebriated and boasting Field General Kyce Waing stumbles over the Nusch-Nuschi on his long and weary way home. Tum Tum eagerly runs to the aid of the terrified General, but only succeeds in hitting the General himself who falls over and squashes the Nusch-Nuschi under his weight.
Kyce Waing believes however that Tum Tum has saved his life with his heroic actions and takes him into service as a reward. The handsome Zatwai receives one harem woman after another in his chamber accompanied by love songs performed by the Bayaderes, while the waiting ladies of the harem engage in erotic fantasies. Tum Tum is summoned to the emperor’s court of justice to defend himself against the accusation of having abducted the wives of the emperor.
Having explained that he was acting according to his master’s instructions, he is cleared of all guilt. His current master, the Field General Kyce Waing as the apparent initiator of the abduction is sentenced to castration. The eager hangman is however able to determine that the General has already been emasculated.
The amused members of court adjourn to the sound of love songs and hymns in praise of youth and beauty. The old beggar saunters past in silence swinging his wooden bell.

COMMENTARY
Hindemith completed Das Nusch-Nuschi on 14 August 1920. This ‘puppet play for Burmese marionettes’ with its playful-frivolous slapstick comedy provides a burlesque contrast to the other one-act operas Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen and Sancta Susanna. The combination of these three single-act operas is similar to the Parisian Grand-Guignol spectacle with its wide spectrum of different styles. Das Nusch-Nuschi follows the tradition of the Commedia dell‘arte with its utilisation of stereotype figures and numerous Lazzi (slapstick interludes) and satirises European dramatic and operatic forms in the form of a puppet show. The work is remote from any form of romantic pathos and also contains bawdy and obscene situation comedy within an exotic setting. The sequence of scenes runs past without laying any claims to dramatic development. Hindemith makes use of traditional musical forms which are interlinked with kaleidoscopic virtuosity and intermittent intentions of parody. The King Mark quotation from the second act of Tristan und Isolde (“Mir dies!”), a milestone of musical modernity, was considered a sacrilege by Hindemith’s puritanically minded contemporaries. Self-referential characteristics are elucidated by Hindemith in his comments on the third dance: ‘The following “choral fugue” (with all mod cons: augmentation, diminutions, stretto and basso ostinato) simply thank their existence to an unfortunate coincidence: they were conceived by the composer. They have no further purpose than this: to incorporate themselves stylishly into the framework of this picture and provide all “experts” with the opportunity to bark about the incredibly bad taste of their creator. Hallelujah! – It is essential that this piece be danced (or rather wobbled to) by two eunuchs with incredibly fat and naked bellies.’ (H.-J. W.)