The Black Spider (Hamburg Version)

The English Language version of The Black Spider (also known as The Mystery of The Black Spider) commissioned by Opera North.

Originally written in 1984, this is a very popular opera by Judith Weir. The three acts of The Black Spider are framed by five spoken interludes. The interludes are set in the present day and are very closely based on news reports from Poland about recent excavations of a tomb in Kraków and the strange events that followed. The three (sung) acts of the opera are very loosely based on the Swiss-German novella Die Schwarze Spinne (1842) by Jeremias Gotthelf.