Transcendent Innocence

Abstract

This chapter discusses the children's opera Red-Riding-Hood, composed in London by Wilhelm Grosz (1894–1939), a refugee composer from Vienna, with lyrics by Rose Fyleman (1877–1957), a successful children's author. After a biographical account of authors and the work, discussion turns towards the history of this fairy tale from origins in northern Italy in the seventeenth century to its cultural position in 1930s’ Europe. Plot characteristics that distinguish the Grosz-Fyleman interpretation are analysed, an account of the ‘rediscovery’ of the work is given, and the challenges in bringing this piece to life in production are narrated. In discussing each of these aspects of Red-Riding-Hood, the author argues that an imperative towards transcendence plays different transformative roles at critical moments in adapting the original allegorical tale for a British pantomime setting, and in coming to terms with, and realising effectively in production, a neglected, ostensibly outmoded and outdated work for a twenty-first century audience.