Die heilige Ente ('The sacred duck')
Ein Spiel mit Göttern und Menschen (A play with Gods and men). In a prelude and three acts. Text by K.M. Levetzow and Leo Feld, Op.15 (1920-1921)

Singers: 2 sop,1 alto, 3 ten, 2 bar, 2 bassOrch: 3(picc),3(cor),3(D-cl,bcl),3(cbn); 4,3,3,1; hrp; cel; timp; perc; str.; 2 scenes
Duration: full evening
Publisher: Universal Edition, Vienna, 1923
score and parts available on hire

First performance: Düsseldorf Apr.1923 (Szell)

Other performances (selection):

Prüwer, Breslau, Nov.1923, Mar.1925; Weimar, Feb.1924, Mar. 1924
Aachen, Feb.1924
Chemnitz, Feb.1924
Kassel, May 1924
Gál, Breslau, Feb. 1925
Saarbrücken, Apr. 1925
Zweig, Berlin, Aug.1925
Steinberg, Königsberg, Dec.1925; Prague Jan.1926
Schwarz, Karlsruhe, Apr. 1928, Jun. 1928, Aug. 1928
Kaiser, Vienna Radio, Mar. 1929
Mainz, Nov. 1932, Dec. 1932
Last full performance: Mainz, Mar.1933

Piano version: Deutsche Oper, Berlin, Nov. 1990

Abridged children's version: Köln, Jun. 2003

Gál's essay 'On the problem of comic opera' of 1927 doesn't mention his own operas but is especially enlightening about his relationship to his textual material and could be applied in its entirety to his Heilige Ente :

"Comic opera only has a genuine potential for effect (it can by its very nature make no use of the naturalistic device of an exciting and brutally nerve-wracking plot), when it is also capable of arousing a strong emotional reaction. Comic as well as serious opera must be able to do this. For this it needs - the most obvious of all platitudes! - music. Genuine, heartfelt and original, sung and inspired music! And now comes the creative secret of the dramatically sensitive musician: he must have material which grips him in order to produce something which is in turn gripping... One thing seems clear to me: the only thing that can release creative energies in an artist, if he really is one, will - in the field of comic opera - not be a silly farce or a witty parody, be it ever so clever, but a character comedy, dealing with genuine, deeper human themes. The heart of all genuine musical drama lies in what is human..." [ Musikblätter des Anbruch IX, Vol. 1/2, pp. 91-2, 1927]