DER VAMPYR (Opera Libretto) | 2014
A new English-language adaptation of Heinrich Marschner's DER VAMPYR, updated for a contemporary audience.
The libretto was commissioned by OperaHub for their 2014 production. A grant from the Harvard Musical Association helped underwrite the adaptation and production.
Want to produce this smash hit, hilarious work? Visit OperaHub!
LORD COLLINS is new to London and to a local vampire coven. He's given a challenge: to bring in 29 new brides - one each day for the next lunar cycle - and he will gain immortality. Over the next four weeks COLLINS wreaks havoc on the young women of the city.
Meanwhile his valet, JONATHAN PARKER has angered his love - DELLA SWANN - who refuses to see him. DELLA's father, the chief of police of London - is hampered by the killing spree and orders DELLA to stay safe, and not wander the streets alone.
At COLLINS' new property - Carfax Abbey - he meets a young maid MUFFY, The VAMPIRE NAY-SAYER - and falls for her. He decides to make her his eternal bride. What he doesn't know is that she has trained all her life to slay vampires and is hunting him as well, with the mentorship of her friend GILES. Out on a date in the city, COLLINS overwhelms her and takes her as his victim.
On the final night of the lunar cycle, at the city's Masqued Ball, COLLINS closes in on DELLA - his final victim. Before he can bite her, MUFFY appears, to everyone’s surprise. She has faked her death, and come back to slay COLLINS She chases him through the crowd and stakes him.
SWANN blames himself for the threat that has befallen DELLA, and vows to always protect her. But MUFFY and DELLA insist that they should be left to decide their own fate. Finally, SWANN accepts this.
An operatic vampire tale with a helping a parody and a dash of social critique, DER VAMPYR mashes up horror tropes and gender norms into a biting and delighting theatrical event.
The libretto was commissioned by OperaHub for their 2014 production. A grant from the Harvard Musical Association helped underwrite the adaptation and production.
Want to produce this smash hit, hilarious work? Visit OperaHub!
LORD COLLINS is new to London and to a local vampire coven. He's given a challenge: to bring in 29 new brides - one each day for the next lunar cycle - and he will gain immortality. Over the next four weeks COLLINS wreaks havoc on the young women of the city.
Meanwhile his valet, JONATHAN PARKER has angered his love - DELLA SWANN - who refuses to see him. DELLA's father, the chief of police of London - is hampered by the killing spree and orders DELLA to stay safe, and not wander the streets alone.
At COLLINS' new property - Carfax Abbey - he meets a young maid MUFFY, The VAMPIRE NAY-SAYER - and falls for her. He decides to make her his eternal bride. What he doesn't know is that she has trained all her life to slay vampires and is hunting him as well, with the mentorship of her friend GILES. Out on a date in the city, COLLINS overwhelms her and takes her as his victim.
On the final night of the lunar cycle, at the city's Masqued Ball, COLLINS closes in on DELLA - his final victim. Before he can bite her, MUFFY appears, to everyone’s surprise. She has faked her death, and come back to slay COLLINS She chases him through the crowd and stakes him.
SWANN blames himself for the threat that has befallen DELLA, and vows to always protect her. But MUFFY and DELLA insist that they should be left to decide their own fate. Finally, SWANN accepts this.
An operatic vampire tale with a helping a parody and a dash of social critique, DER VAMPYR mashes up horror tropes and gender norms into a biting and delighting theatrical event.
Production Photos
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Press...What the press said about DER VAMPYR:
The Boston Globe, Terry Byrne: “OperaHub’s stellar production of Der Vampyr stands out as one of the most rewarding theatrical events of the season. The company’s heady brew of Heinrich Marschner’s lush, Romantic score with an updated libretto with the insouciant humor of Boston playwright John J King [...] makes this rarely performed opera wonderfully accessible and enjoyable to opera lovers and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight fans alike." |
"King’s libretto is the crowning achievement of this Der Vampyr. Not only is his rhyming dexterously hilarious (‘I’ll seduce her, then I’ll juice her’), but it always serves the story and the score."
New York Arts, Lloyd Schwartz:
The libretto brims over with clever and often anachronistic or off-color rhymes (“This is foolish, don’t be mulish”; “You wimp, don’t be so limp!”) and puns (“I have a little trick,” Collins tells Della as he sucks on her punctured finger, “when you have a little prick”; Muffy announces that Collins “thinks he’s taking me out for ‘steak.’ He’s right!”). “Carfax Abbey,” we are told, is “just across from Downton.” Someone even exclaims “Oy vey!”
Boston Musical Intelligencer, Liane Curtis:
“In a rollicking new adaptation, Der Vampyr offers cultural parody, plenty of laughs and also dramatic intensity…it’s clear that OperaHub has a hit on its hands."
New England Theatre Geek, Kitty Drexel:
“Der Vampyr is a decadently feminist adaptation of Marschner’s original. This new arrangement…tackles the difficult truths of male entitlement, victim blaming and rape culture that all women face on a daily basis… [it] is relatable, singable, and very entertaining."
New York Arts, Lloyd Schwartz:
The libretto brims over with clever and often anachronistic or off-color rhymes (“This is foolish, don’t be mulish”; “You wimp, don’t be so limp!”) and puns (“I have a little trick,” Collins tells Della as he sucks on her punctured finger, “when you have a little prick”; Muffy announces that Collins “thinks he’s taking me out for ‘steak.’ He’s right!”). “Carfax Abbey,” we are told, is “just across from Downton.” Someone even exclaims “Oy vey!”
Boston Musical Intelligencer, Liane Curtis:
“In a rollicking new adaptation, Der Vampyr offers cultural parody, plenty of laughs and also dramatic intensity…it’s clear that OperaHub has a hit on its hands."
New England Theatre Geek, Kitty Drexel:
“Der Vampyr is a decadently feminist adaptation of Marschner’s original. This new arrangement…tackles the difficult truths of male entitlement, victim blaming and rape culture that all women face on a daily basis… [it] is relatable, singable, and very entertaining."