The Lucky Hand (scene 1)

Arnold Schönberg’s “Drama with Music in One Act” Die glückliche Hand (The Lucky Hand) was first performed in the Vienna Volksoper on 14 October 1924. Schönberg had published the text already in 1911. It was written between September 1909 and June 1910. Although Schönberg had at the same time started on drafts for the music, it was only at the end of 1913 that he finished the work. Scene 1: “The stage is almost completely dark. In front lies the man, face down. On his back crouches a catlike, fantastic animal (hyena with enormous, batlike wings) that seems to have sunk its teeth into his neck. The visible portion of the stage is very small, somewhat round (a shallow curve). The rear stage is hidden by a dark-violet velvet curtain. There are slight gaps in this curtain from which green-lit faces peer: six men, six women. The light very weak. Only the eyes are clearly visible. The rest is swathed in soft red veiling, and this too reflects the greenish light.”