Plot
Irwing the weaver had signed a pact with Goggolori, promising him his first child in return for making his fields fertile. When the time was ripe and Goggolori wanted to go and get the grown-up and unaware Zeipoth, the latter was already in love with the young musician Aberwin. Zeipoth’s mother the weaver sought help from the witch, Ullerin, to get rid of Goggolori. The witch gave her a vial with a chunk of the moon, to immediately turn anyone on whom it is thrown into stone. If the throw misses its target, the land on which it falls becomes plagued. The throw is unsuccessful.
At thanksgiving, Einsiedel preaches to not believe in Goggolori anymore and announces the engagement of Zeipoth and Aberwin, whereupon Goggolori appears, pulls Zeipoth away, and announces the plague, whose first victim is to be the weaver’s wife.
It is months later before Zeipoth returns like a sleep wanderer from Goggolori’s realm. She hears about the pact from her father.
Goggolori, in the guise of a soldier while playing cards with Ullerin, is continuously raising the stakes and is on a losing streak when Zeipoth arrives. She offers herself as the last stake, Goggolori plays a final round and wins, and Ullerin takes off for hell. Zeipoth grants Goggolori her death, and therewith frees him from his destined immortality.
Goggolori premiered on February 3, 1985 in the Gärtnerplatz State Theater in Munich, commissioned by the ‘Friends of the National Theater’ and the General Director of the Bavarian State Theater.
The legend stemming from the Ammersee tells of Goggolori, associated with the Celtic genius cucullatus (God with a cap), who is supposed to have changed his guise and wreaked havoc during the thirty-year war in Finning. This work is rooted in the Orffean Music Theater, receiving its stimulus from the myth of the underlying legend in which pagan beliefs and Catholicism collide with each other.
The work cannot be ascribed to any particular genre. As a vocal musical piece, it lies somewhere between rural folk theater, people’s opera, and Theatrum mundi. Unlike the somewhat artistic language of Orff’s Bernauerin, the many voiced passages use a Bavarian dialect aimed at creating an authentic atmosphere. The work is propped up through alpine songs and dances that serve as musical interludes and form the basis for Hiller’s composition – designed to achieve dramaturgical unity in the dialect, music, and scenes.
This work was extraordinarily successful during its premiere in Munich, evidenced by scores of sold-out performances.
