Act II. Three years have passed. In the house of the innkeeper Colas, now as brave as before, having been wounded in battle with the invading enemy, Captain Gontran finds himself received as a severely wounded person. He loves his nurse Christine with all his heart and she also is attached to him. He even has a claim upon her as having been once a substitute for her brother, but he will not force her affections, and besides, he no longer has "the golden cross." Christine too dares not follow her inclinations for, as Gontran tells her that it was he who went to the war, she would offend him very much if she, true to her oath, should ask for the cross. This also reappears. A cripple, in whom one would scarcely recognize the former stalwart Sergeant Bombardon, is the bearer. Christine's heart nearly breaks, but she does not hesitate to keep her word. But no! Bombardon is not an impostor. He got the cross from a dying man. Yet, who is this? Dare he trust his eyes? The man whom he believed dead comes out of the house. It is Gontran. What happiness for the two lovers!
VERSIEGELT
SEALED IN
Opera in one act after Raupach. Music by Blech. Words by Richard Batka and Pordes-Milo. Produced: Hamburg, November 4, 1908.
Characters
| Braun, a burgomaster | Baritone |
| Else, his daughter | Soprano |
| Frau Gertrud, a young widow | Mezzo-Soprano |
| Frau Willmers | Alto |
| Bertel, her son, a court clerk | Tenor |
| Lampe, a bailiff | Bass |
Time—1830.
Place—A small German town.
In the centre of the whole scene stands a sideboard. This same sideboard belongs to Frau Willmers who now comes running to the apartment of the pretty young widow, Gertrud, with every sign of agitation, to tell her that the bailiff, Lampe, intends to seize her sideboard, an old and valuable heirloom. The burgomaster bears her ill will because her son Bertel has been casting eyes at his daughter Else, and now takes occasion to inflict on her this disgrace. To escape this she begs her lodger the favour of taking in the sideboard for her. Frau Gertrud is very willing. She has a grudge against the burgomaster. He used to call on her almost every day, and Frau Gertrud allowed herself to hope that sometime she would become the Frau burgomistress. Nevertheless, she would very willingly accelerate his decision. Scarcely is the sideboard, with the help of a neighbour, happily installed at Frau Gertrud's than Bertel, Frau Willmers' son and the burgomaster's daughter Else enter. They have made every effort to make the burgomaster kindly disposed but it was in vain. But as the couple have decided not to give up each other, they have come to Frau Gertrud to beg her influence with the burgomaster. When she thus receives confirmation of her suspicion of the burgomaster's liking for her, she naturally is not averse to the rôle of matchmaker. Out of her beautiful dreams of the future the young woman, left alone by her neighbours, is aroused by a knock. But it is not the burgomaster, whom she secretly expected, but the bailiff, Lampe. Loquacious, conceited, and intrusive, he begins by telling her all his merits and his skill, brings greetings to the widow, as the burgomaster has commissioned him. The sideboard seems to him very suspicious. So now he will go only to Frau Willmers' to convince himself whether his suspicion is well founded. As soon as he has gone the burgomaster comes. He also makes use of evasions and then confides to his gentle friend the anxieties of a father. It grieves him very much that his Else loves this Bertel, son of his bitterest enemy, who is now dead. Frau Gertrud, however, interests her self bravely in favour of her protégés. Her remark that the burgomaster surely has not a heart of stone, brings him nearer to realizing his own condition. Instead of the children he now talks of himself. First he is seeking for a sign that she means well by him with her advice. Soon she has led him so far that he confesses his love for her and begs a kiss. The twilight that has begun favours the idyll. Then again comes the trouble-maker Lampe. Nothing worse can happen to the couple than to be discovered by this gossiper. So the burgomaster must hide in order to save his own and Frau Gertrud's reputation. But where? There is nothing better than the empty sideboard. Scarcely has the somewhat corpulent burgomaster fortunately concealed himself in it than Lampe enters the apartment and, "In the name of the authorities" seals up the sideboard. Unfortunately the burgomaster in his hiding place finds himself not so quiet as caution demanded. The sound does not escape Lampe and his evil thoughts scent here something very improper. Surely there is a lover concealed in the sideboard, and he goes away with the malicious idea of finding the burgomaster to tell him that Frau Gertrud is not the right sort of woman for him. But Frau Gertrud is sure of her point and, as Bertel and Else also come in with Frau Willmers, a plot is soon concocted by the four so that the happiness of everybody will result from this favourable accident. The two women leave the young couple alone so that through a put-up game on the father everything will be obtained. Else plays the lovesick girl, Bertel on the other hand the virtuous one whose respect for the burgomaster knows no bounds. So he refuses to accept Else's love against the will of her father and she, desperate, wants to run away when a voice proceeds from the sideboard. Now the father and burgomaster must humbly beg of his clerk that he take upon himself the offence of breaking the seal and letting him out of the sideboard. Naturally, the first takes place after Else has dictated the marriage contract. The burgomaster, who at all hazards must get out before Lampe comes back, consents to everything. Bertel employs his profession in writing out the whole contract and through a peephole in the sideboard the burgomaster has to sign it before the door is finally opened to him. But he makes his terms. In place of himself, Bertel and Else must enter the sideboard. Naturally they do not hesitate long and they are for the first time together undisturbed within it. The burgomaster has concealed himself in the next room when the two women come back with a gay company. (The following very indelicate passage, which endangers all the sympathy of the audience for Frau Gertrud, might easily be cut out.) Frau Gertrud has brought people from a nearby shooters' festival to show them the trapped burgomaster, evidently because she believes her scheme more assured thus. All the greater is the astonishment when the young couple step out of the opened sideboard. But the burgomaster all of a sudden appears in the background. Then Frau Gertrud cleverly takes everything on herself. She had shut up the young couple in it and had spread the report that the burgomaster was concealed in it in order that he might be affected by it and could no longer oppose the union of the two young people. Surely everything is solved satisfactorily when Lampe arrives with every sign of agitation. He has not found the burgomaster, and Else and the clerk of the court have disappeared. The burgomaster must certainly have been murdered by the clerk. Lampe rages so long in the excessive indignation of his official power that he himself is shut up in the sideboard and the others, now undisturbed, seal their compact and reseal it.
DER TROMPETER VON SÄKKINGEN
THE TRUMPETER OF SÄKKINGEN
Opera in three acts and a Prologue; music by Viktor E. Nessler; text by Rudolf Bunge after Viktor von Scheffel's poem with the same title. Produced: Leipzig, May 4, 1884.