In Lulu of the Spirit of the Earth, I wanted to present a wonderful example of a woman, a creature richly endowed by nature, a being who, even if she emerged from a small stream, flourishes among men whom she surpasses tremendously – with the good, of course, connotation of heredity.
Under the domination of the miserable and petty-bourgeois German naturalism, the splendid creature I had imagined became the worst possible, and for many long years, I was considered a relentless investigator of the female gender, a fervent moralist and misogynist exorcising the demon. I have always believed that if The Spirit of the Earth is not portrayed as I had imagined, it will always provoke scandal and moral outrage.
Frank Wedekind's THE SPIRIT OF THE EARTH was published in 1895, and Alban Berg used the text along with Pandora's Box for his opera Lulu. Originating from the lower social strata, Lulu – using different names – rises socially and marries a respectable older man.
In the first act, she conquers the painter who is making her portrait. Her husband catches them, and dies of apoplexy. In the second act, it is the painter's wife who considers her an angel of virtue. But the one she loves, Sen, who always follows her, gradually reveals the truth to the gullible painter, who then commits suicide.
In the third act, Lulu deceives an aristocrat, an amateur explorer, and leads him to destruction. In the final act, she forces Sen to marry her. He wants to live a normal life with her, but Lulu imposes her destructive surroundings on him. At the peak of his displeasure, he dies. Each act ends with a death.
