Das kalte Herz

The charcoal burner Peter Munkel is discontented with his fate; he desires wealth and social recognition and asks the Little Glass Man to help him always have as much money in his pocket as the wealthy Ezechiel. His wish is fulfilled, but when Ezechiel loses his fortune through gambling, Peter is also destitute once more. In despair, he turns to the spirit Dutch Michel for help. Michel agrees to help him for the price of his heart which he takes from Peter, replacing it with a cold stone which turns Peter into an unscrupulous, hard-hearted individual, insensitive to any expression of emotion. When Peter kills his wife in cold rage because she had given a piece of bread to an old man who turned out to have been the Little Glass Man, he realises how far his transformation has progressed. The Little Glass Man feels sorry for him and shows him a way of getting round Dutch Michel to regain his heart and with it his sense of humanity.
Volker David Kirchner worked on the tale ‘Das kalte Herz’ [The Cold Heart] written by Wilhelm Hauff and published in his third volume of fairy tales in 1828 embedded in the framing narrative ‘Das Wirtshaus im Spessart’. Kirchner’s first version was very closely based on the story unfolding in the fairy tale, but in the revised version, the composer and Harald Weirich displayed a completely different slant to the story: they alter the positive fairy-tale ending and give the work an open conclusion tainted by a sense of implacability reminiscent of a dance of death. The redemption does not take place and the work ends musically with a simultaneous spectral funeral march and demonically distorted waltz. The figures of the Little Glass Man, Ezechiel and Dutch Michel/lottery ticket seller are fused into a single character embodying a wide spectrum of human attributes ranging from positive and seductive to unfathomably evil, negating the antinomic principle of good and evil.