About the work
Opera in three acts by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari after Charles Perrault’s fairy tale "Donkeyskin", for which the composer wrote the German-language libretto himself – an unusual step, since he otherwise mostly composed to Italian texts. It premiered on 21 April 1927 at the Nationaltheater Munich, conducted by Hans Knappertsbusch.
Plot
A princess sets her suitors the impossible condition of bringing her garments woven of wind, moon and sun. After she has the golden donkey killed that secured the kingdom’s prosperity, she loses her crown and her home and must go into exile. Only when a prince finds and loves her, stripped of all outward trappings, does she realise she had always possessed the three heavenly garments within herself – and the kingdom is restored to her.
Cultural significance
Wolf-Ferrari himself considered this his favourite work, yet the Munich premiere was unsuccessful and the opera was forgotten for decades. Only a widely noted 1996 production by Theater Hagen brought it back into view.