Der unvermeidliche Tod der Gräfin de Savigny

Haute-Claire Stassin who has learned the art of fencing from her father and has also taken over his pupils after his death is teaching the Count Serlon de Savigny in a French town. She falls in love with him and they become a couple. The count is however engaged to an aristocratic lady and is about to marry her. Shortly after the wedding, Haute-Claire disappears without trace and all searches to find her prove fruitless. A short time later, the physician Dr. Torty is called to the sick bed of the Countess de Savigny. He is able to establish two facts: firstly, she has been poisoned and will soon die as a result of this crime and, secondly, her maid Eulalie turns out to be none other than the missing Haute-Claire. The count receives the physician’s assurance that he will not tell anyone about the crime and adultery – the shame which would be cast over the venerable lineage of the de Savignys would be far worse than the countess’s death. The physician keeps his word and Haute-Claire and the count are able to continue to live together.

The relish taken in the detailed description of diabolic crimes of passion was a central theme running through the literary works of the French author Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly (1808-1889). ‘Le bonheur dans le crime’ (Happiness in crime) was published in 1874 in the collection of novels ‘Les Diaboliques’; all stories in this volume are focused on women who commit a crime out of passion, hate or revenge which remains unatoned. Hans Peter Müller-Kieling accompanies the libretto in terse, laconic and unagitated dialogues created by Peter Wolter with economic, rhythmically accentuated music which becomes progressively tauter towards its conclusion, erupting in a climax during the death scene of the countess in expansive, elegiac melodic arcs.