Die Junge Magd

Apparently it was only after he finished his one-act opera "Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen" (Murder, Hope of Women) Op. 12 (text by Oskar Kokoschka) that Hindemith hit on the plan for a triptych consisting of that work and two others. The one-act opera "Das Nusch-Nuschi" Op. 20 (text by Franz Blei), the second work in this series, was not completed until a year after "Murder, Hope of Women"; Hindemith finished the second opera on 14 August 1920. In contrast "Sancta Susanna" Op. 21 (text by August Stramm) was already finished on 5 February 1921. Hindemith probably discovered the texts by Blei and Stamm simultaneously, and immediately recognized the possibility of extending and continuing the theme of "Murder, Hope of Women" with these two other pieces. It was thus that a triptych of one-act operas closely connected in their thematic content came into being. The three works deal with the same subjects from three fundamentally different points of view. The general themes include sexuality, culture, punishment, violence, and transfiguration.