About the work
„Gold!" is a children's opera by the Dutch composer Leonard Evers to a libretto by Flora Verbrugge, premiered in 2014. It is based on the Grimm fairy tale „The Fisherman and His Wife". With the smallest of forces — usually one singer and one percussionist — the work tells a powerful parable of greed and excess for young audiences.
Plot
A poor fisherman one day catches a special fish — a golden flounder that can speak and reveals itself to be an enchanted prince. The fisherman grants it its freedom. When he tells his wife, she wants to use the fish's miraculous power: she sends the fisherman back to the sea again and again to utter wishes. The poor hut becomes a house, then a castle; the wife wants to be king, then emperor, and finally to command sun and moon like God. With each more extravagant wish the sea grows darker and stormier. At the last, most presumptuous demand the fish's patience is exhausted: in an instant everything is gone, and the two sit once more in their old, wretched hut.
Cultural significance
„Gold!" is among the most successful contemporary children's operas and has been widely restaged and honoured internationally. Its lean forces make the work ideal for schools and touring productions, while the timeless fairy-tale moral of greed and contentment speaks to children and adults alike.