Von Heute auf Morgen 1980

Synopsis
Artists

A brilliantly observed comedy…

…of a witty woman determined to keep her husband.

(presented as a triple-bill with Erwartung and Die Jakobsleiter)

Music By

Arnold Schoenberg

Libretto By

Gertrud Schoenberg

English Version By

Bliss Hebert

Von Heute auf Morgen (From Today until Tomorrow)

The scene is set in the present.

A married couple returns home after a party at which the husband has become infatuated with a school friend of his wife. The wife contends that she is not inferior to her friend in any respect. To underscore the point, she informs him that she was ardently pursued at the party by a famous tenor. The husband dismisses the singer as a silly fellow, and notes that his wife, after all, is just an honest housewife while her friend, still unmarried, is a fashionable woman of the world. They quarrel. The wife alters her hair and changes into a negligee to prove that she can be just as glamorous as her friend if she chooses.

The husband now undertakes to play her lover. But she rejects him, contending that as a decent family man he has some appeal, but that as a lover, he’s ludicrous. The wife demands that they drink and dance, and the husband obeys. The noise wakes their child and the husband is forced to attend to the child. The wife also informs him that she has spent all her household money on new, extravagant gowns and that they will have to move to a hotel because she is tired of housework.

The singer phones, inviting the couple to join him and the friend for a nightcap at a bar: The wife accepts the invitation and her husband finally concedes that she is more than the equal of her friend. The wife changes back to her original appearance. They realize it is morning. Their child wakes and they prepare his breakfast.

The singer and the friend arrive, complaining that they were stood up for the nightcap. Husband and wife apologize and offer them coffee. The singer and the friend both indicate that they remain interested in the couple, but now their interest is rejected. The singer and the friend take this poorly. Surely the couple has a modem marriage? No, reply the couple, a completely old-fashioned marriage. The singer and the friend depart in a very ill humor. Husband and wife conclude that while they are not fashionably stylish, they are most securely married.

Synopsis

Von Heute auf Morgen (From Today until Tomorrow)

Artists

Mary Shearer

Mary Shearer

William Stone

William Stone

Barry Busse

Barry Busse

Carol Wilcox

Carol Wilcox

George Manahan

George Manahan

Bliss Hebert

Bliss Hebert

Maxine Willi Klein

Maxine Willi Klein

Craig Miller

Craig Miller

Von Heute auf Morgen 1980