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 Mandarin's Son The Mandarin's Son The Mandarin's Son ("Сын мандарина" in Cyrillic; "Syn mandarina" in transliteration) is comic opera in one act by César Cui, composed in 1859. The libretto, which includes spoken dialogue, was written by Viktor Krylov. No small influence for this work came from the French composer Daniel Auber, particularly his "Le cheval de bronze", which had a similar setting, and was being performed in Saint Petersburg at the time. Cui dedicated this opera to his bride, Mal'vina Bamberg. (They had married the previous year.) The orchestration is credited to Mily Balakirev. The first performance of "The Mandarin's Son"