Augsburger Puppenkiste Sergei Prokofiev, a symphonic fairy-tale for children, as well as Bastien und Bastienne, a comic opera composed by Mozart. In 1985, the theatre staged another one of Mozart's works: The Magic Flute. The opera was adapted for marionettes by Walter Oehmichens son-in-law, Hanns-Joachim Marschall. In the course of the adaption, Marschall slightly changed the opera, cutting out long arias. He also engaged actors with trained singing voices to speak and sing the parts of the characters. Thus, every puppet had a double cast: a manipulator and a speaker. The same strategy was used for the adaption of Mozart’s The Abduction
The Diary of a Madman (opera) The Diary of a Madman (opera) The Diary of a Madman is a one-act chamber opera by the composer Humphrey Searle. It is based on the short story of the same name by Nikolai Gogol. The opera was premiered in 1958 in Berlin. The libretto is by the composer. The work, which is the first of Searle's operas, was commissioned by Hermann Scherchen, then the director of the Berlin Festival. Scherchen gave Searle complete choice of subject, stipulating only that the orchestra be of no more than 15 players, and that there should be no more than four singing roles.