Everyone needs a little fantasy from time to time, and on this week’s Sunday Opera (5/17 2026), we’ve got some in the guise of a libretto by Siegfried Wagner for his opera “an allem ist Hutchen Schuld!” (“Everything Is Little-Hat’s Fault!”). This fairytale opera about an invisible, mischievous goblin named “Little-Hat” or “Hattie,” was cobbled together from a number of the stories of The Brothers Grimm with a little Hans Christian Anderson thrown in.
The opera premiered in 1915 and was well received but was neglected after its initial production after its 1917 premier in Stuttgart. There was a production in 1944 that eventually made its way to Bayreuth which is where the 2019 live recording was made to which we’ll be listening. It appeared at the opulent Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth. It may have disappeared partially because of its epic production needs which include a house falling on just about the entire cast!
The story is extremely complicated as it does include over 15 of the fairytales of the Grimm brothers cobbled together, (Some sources credit 30 or even 40!) so we’ll suffice it to say it’s about Frieder (Hans-Georg Priese) and Katherlies’chen (Rebecca Broberg) who are in love, but because of the machinations of a disguised witch named Trude (Maarja Purga), they are forced to leave their village, avow to never see or love each other again, and go on journeys to answer riddles and find items set down by Trude.
Through it all, especially a second at that is an episodic tour through the Grimm material, Siegfried Wagner’s music is lush, romantic, and just wonderful.
Many members of the cast play multiple roles, and that cast includes Alessandra di Girogio, Daniel Arnaldos, Ulf Dirk Mader, Axel Wolloscheck, and Silvia Micu. We even have appearances by Siegfried Wagner (Joa Helgesson) and Jacob Grimm (Peter P. Pachl) in the last act who discuss Wagner’s “mash-up” of Grimm’s work.
They’re joined by the Nuremberg Philharmonic Chorus, the PPP Music Theatre Ensemble, and the Munich Karlovy Vay Symphony Orchestra with David Robert Coleman conducting.
We’ll close our time together this week with some orchestral music by Wagner. The two pieces included are the overture and prelude to Act III of his first opera, “Der Barenhauter” (“Bearskin” or “The Man in a Bear’s Skin”) and his Violin Concerto in A minor from 1915, the same year as “Little-Hat.”
