About the work
Das geheime Königreich is a fairy-tale opera in one act (two scenes) by Ernst Krenek, to his own libretto, composed in 1927 as the second piece of his opera triptych. It premiered on 6 May 1928 at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden alongside "Der Diktator" and "Schwergewicht oder Die Ehre der Nation"; that December, Otto Klemperer brought all three one-actors to the Krolloper in Berlin.
Plot
A king weary of his office withdraws from ruling, while his domineering wife, the queen, hands the crown to a charismatic rebel leader whose hunger for power she soon comes to fear herself. Amid the turmoil of revolution, the queen flees into the forest and is transformed into a tree; the king, disguised as a jester, goes unrecognised by the drunken insurgents. In the end the court fool returns the crown to him, and the king finds his true, "secret" kingdom in his retreat to nature.
Cultural significance
As a quieter counterpart to the simultaneously composed world hit "Jonny spielt auf", the work explores power, responsibility and withdrawal through a fairy-tale parable. Its joint premiere with "Der Diktator" and "Schwergewicht" as an opera triptych shows how, in 1928, Krenek combined three contrasting tones – tragic, fairy-tale and burlesque – into a single evening.