The Bird-Man and the Flying Princess

Opera in three acts by Udo Zimmermann

A poor tailor and his wife are expecting a child, but instead of a human baby, the woman gives birth to an egg which hatches into a strange creature, half human, half bird: a Schuhu. Although his son is lovable and highly intelligent, the tailor cannot bear the town gossiping about him and chases him out of the house. Far, far away, the Schuhu meets the Flying Princess and they immediately feel a marvelous connection ... Based on the literary fairy tale of the same name by Peter Hacks, the Dresden composer Udo Zimmermann wrote an opera in 1976 about a world where mutually respectful dealings are sometimes difficult, and where many people find the new and unfamiliar suspicious and even threatening, and yet it is a world which also has a great longing for happi- ness and love.