Der blaue Vogel

The prince is loved by two princesses, one ‘beautiful’ and the other ‘ugly’. He loves the beautiful princess: dejected by the prince’s rejection, the ugly princess develops magical powers so strong that she is able to turn the prince into a blue bird and thus separate the two lovers. But the blue bird finds its way back to the beautiful princess, although she is kept captive, and reinstates her faith in a wide and exciting world on the other side of the dungeon walls. But when the ‘ugly’ princess finds him out and wounds him, the prince has to go through yet another transformation, as a comet. He will now appear in the sky only for brief moments. His bluebird plumage, left behind, lends anybody who touches it the ability to understand foreign tongues and overcome hostility.