Fairytale poetry and tragic love story come together in Engelbert Humperdinck's opera "Königskinder" (The King's Children). Theater Trier brings this rarely performed work to the stage, reviving a moving story of hope, exclusion, and fate.
1910, a sensation at the great Met in New York: Engelbert Humperdinck's fairy-tale opera Königskinder (The Royal Children) is a hit with audiences at its premiere, even surpassing the latest work by one of the house gods, Puccini – and that with a story taken from German fairy tales.
The goose girl grows up alone with a witch in the deep forest. Then the prince comes by in disguise to get to know the country and its people. The goose girl and the prince fall in love. A minstrel seeks advice from the witch, because the king is dead and no one knows who should succeed him to the throne. The witch prophesies: whoever passes through the city gate at noon the next day is destined to be king.
The minstrel helps the goose girl break the witch's spell so that she can stand at the gate the next day when the bell rings, where she is greeted by the king's son. The people become angry, chase the two away, and kill the witch. Only the children recognize the two lovers as the new royal couple. The royal children do not survive their escape through the woods.
After its premiere, New York newspapers hailed the work as "the most valuable opera of the post-Wagner era." Over the course of history, the work has enjoyed varying degrees of success, but in the last 30 years, the royal children have made an impressive return to the stage. Alongside Hansel and Gretel, the work is considered the highlight of Humperdinck's oeuvre.
Premiere April 11,
Further performances: April 25, May 3, 8, 12, and 17, 2026
