Der Rattenfänger

The mysterious, disturbing tale of the Pied Piper is revisited in this haunting work. Why did the rat infestation break out? What salary did the Pied Piper want? ‘I was clear’, explains Michael Ende, ‘that the thing which brought the rat infestation into town was what the Pied Piper wanted as his salary. Something that has to be destroyed, so the town can get well again. To complete the mythos I introduced a kind of “Popanz”, a demonic being which continuously produces money. Every time it produces money the form of a ghost of death, the smaller double of the Pied Piper, sets off into the world and something has to die. This could be a tree, a river or a child...’
The town of Hamelin is already haunted by these ghosts of death by the beginning of the opera. Nature has been turned into a desert, the river Weser is dry and the trees are dead. To rescue the children from being sacrificed to the town’s wellbeing, the Pied Piper leads them out of the town to the mountain of Calvanien. However, it soon becomes clear that there’s no way out for them. (Quotation: Theater Dortmund 1993)