König Hirsch (in English, The Stag King) is an opera in three acts by Hans Werner Henze to a German libretto by Heinz von Cramer after Il re cervo, a theatrical fable (1762) by Carlo Gozzi. He revised it as Il re cervo, premiered in 1963 at the Staatstheater Kassel.
König Hirsch was first performed in a drastically shortened version by the Städtische Oper Berlin on 23 September 1956 in the Theater des Westens with staging by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and conducted by Hermann Scherchen as a highlight of the Berliner Festwochen 1956.[1]
It was rewritten as Il re cervo, oder Die Irrfahrten der Wahrheit (The Stag King or The Odysseys of Truth) and performed at the Staatstheater Kassel on 10 March 1963. This version was also produced at the Santa Fe Opera on 4 August 1965. The complete, original form of König Hirsch was given for the first time on 5 May 1985 at the Staatsoper Stuttgart.
The king, who has been cast into the forest as a child by the governor, returns to his kingdom. However he is tricked by the governor and forced to go back to the forest where he turns into a stag. Eventually he goes back once again, the governor is killed, and he is transformed again into human form.
To date the opera has not been recorded in its entirety. An excerpt (act 3, scene 5) from a performance recorded by the Südwestrundfunk Stuttgart in 1985 (Julia Conwell, soprano; John Bröcheler, bass-baritone; Helmut Holzapfel, tenor-buffo; Würtembergisches Staatsorchester Stuttgart; Dennis Russell Davies, conductor) is included as part of:
'Liegt denn in alle dem ein Sinn?' sang getreu nach dem Libretto Heinz v. Cramers in schmelzenden Tönen der Tenor Helmut Krebs. 'Nee', hallte es vom dritten Rang wie ein Peitschenknall in die andächtige, vielleicht auch etwas schläfrige Festwochenpremiere. Das Parkett antwortete mit Beifall.
