Handlung/Story:
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Prologue: A circus ringmaster
introduces the various animals in his menagerie.
The last is Lulu herself, who is carried on stage
and introduced as a snake.
Act 1
Scene 1: Lulu, the wife of Dr.
Goll, an elderly doctor, is having her portrait
painted. Dr. Schön, a newspaper editor who
rescued Lulu from the gutter and with whom she
is now having an affair, is also present. Presently,
his son Alwa arrives, excuses himself, and he
and Dr. Schön leave. The Painter makes heavy
passes at Lulu. Dr. Goll unexpectly walks in,
and finding the two of them alone, promptly collapses
and dies of a heart attack.
Scene 2: Lulu has now married
the Painter. She receives a telegram announcing
Dr. Schön's engagement, which seems to trouble
her. She is visited by Schigolch, a tramp who
seems to have featured in her past in some unspecified
way. Dr. Schön arrives, referring to Schigolch
as Lulu's father. He has come to ask Lulu to stay
out of his life from now on. She is unmoved by
his request, and when the Painter, her husband,
arrives she leaves. Dr. Schön tells the Painter
about their affair, and insists he confront his
wife about it. The Painter leaves, ostensibly
to confront Lulu, but instead, he slits his own
throat. Lulu appears to be unmoved by this suicide,
and simply tells Dr. Schön 'You'll marry
me all the same.'
Scene 3: Lulu, working as a dancer,
is sitting in her dressing room with Alwa. The
two discuss various things, including a Prince
who is in love with Lulu and wants to marry her.
Lulu leaves to take the stage, but refuses to
go on because Dr. Schön and his fiancée
are in the audience. Dr. Schön, comes in
to try to convince her to perform. When the two
are left alone, she tells Schön that she
is thinking of leaving with the Prince for Africa.
Dr. Schön realises that he cannot live without
her, and is convinced by Lulu to write a letter
to his fiancée breaking off his engagement,
which Lulu herself dictates. Lulu then calmly
continues with the show.
Act 2
Scene 1: Lulu has now married
Dr. Schön, who is full of jealousy over her
many admirers. One of them, the lesbian Countess
Geschwitz, visits her to invite her to a ball,
but leaves in the face of Dr. Schön's disapproval.
When the two go out, the Countess returns and
hides. Two other admirers, the Acrobat and the
Schoolboy, also enter, and all begin to talk to
Lulu when she returns. Presently, Alwa arrives,
and the admirers hide as Alwa declares his love
for Lulu. Dr. Schön returns, spots the Acrobat,
and begins a long argument with Lulu, during the
course of which he discovers the other admirers.
He gives Lulu a revolver, and orders her to kill
herself, but she shoots Schön instead. The
police arrive to arrest Lulu for the murder.
Interlude: The interlude consists
of a silent film (accompanied by Berg's palindromic
score). In it, we see Lulu's arrest, trial, conviction
and imprisonment. Then we see her deliberately
contract cholera and be transferred to hospital.
The Countess Geschwitz visits her, and gives her
her clothes, so that Lulu can escape disguised
as her, which she does.
Scene 2: The Countess Geschwitz,
Alwa and the Acrobat are gathered in the same
room as Act II, Scene 1. They are awaiting Schigolch,
who is to take the Countess to the hospital. She
is going to sacrifice her own freedom by taking
Lulu's place so that nobody will discover she
has escaped until it is too late. The Acrobat
says he is going to marry Lulu and move with her
to Paris where the two will work in an act together.
Schigolch leaves with the countess, then returns
with Lulu, who is so ill from her disease that
the Acrobat abandons his plan, and goes off to
summon the police instead. Schigolch is sent off
to buy train tickets, and, left alone, Alwa and
Lulu declare their love for each other and agree
to go away together.
Act 3
Scene 1: Lulu and Alwa are now
living in Paris. The scene is a party in a casino.
Lulu is being blackmailed into working in a Cairo
brothel by the Acrobat and a pimp; she is still
wanted for Dr. Schön's murder and they will
turn her in if she does not do as they say. Schigolch
arrives, asking for money. She is eventually convinced
to lure the Acrobat away to a hotel and murder
him. After they have gone, news arrives that shares
in the railway, which the party guests all owned
and had so much confidence in, have crashed. The
party quickly breaks up, and in the confusion,
Lulu manages to change clothes with a young man.
She escapes with Alwa just before the police arrive
to recapture her.
Scene 2: Lulu and Alwa are now
living with Schigolch in poverty and are on the
run in London. Lulu is working as a prostitute.
She arrives with a client, a professor (played
by the same actor as Dr. Goll, Lulu's first husband).
The Countess Geschwitz then arrives with a portrait
of Lulu which she has brought from Paris. Alwa
hangs it on the wall. Lulu goes out, and returns
with another client, the Black Man (played by
the same actor as the Painter, Lulu's second husband).
He refuses to pay in advance, and kills Alwa in
a struggle. Schigolch removes the body while Geschwitz
contemplates suicide, an idea she gives up when
she realises that Lulu is not moved by it. Eventually,
Lulu goes out and returns with a third client
(played by the same actor as Dr. Schön, Lulu's
third husband). He haggles over the price, and
is about to leave when Lulu decides she will sleep
with him for less than her usual fee. This client,
who is actually Jack the Ripper, murders Lulu,
and then on his way out kills the Countess as
well, who swears her love to Lulu as the curtain
falls.
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