Hans Wern­er Hen­ze’s "Ger­man Com­edy" is both one and many fairytales, present and faraway. An old man tells the story about the loss of the Upupa, a bird of hap­pi­ness, and how people search for it, how it is found and al­lowed to go free again. The story in­cludes a fly­ing de­mon, three sons, three won­der­ful treas­ures – Upupa with golden feath­ers, a Jew­ish prin­cess and a mu­sic­al ma­gic-box – and the happy re­turn for the one who goes along the path of no re­turn.

Com­mis­sioned by the Salzburg Fest­iv­al, Hen­ze’s op­era "L’Upupa" premiered in Sum­mer of 2003. The ma­gic­al mu­sic piece was brought to life by stage-dir­ect­or Di­eter Dorn & Markus Stenz, con­duct­ing the Wien­er Phil­har­monik­er, and the sing­ers: Laura Aikin, John Mark Ains­ley, Mat­thi­as Go­erne, Axel Köhler, Günter Mis­sen­hardt, Al­fred Muff, Ant­on Scharinger & Hanna Schwarz. The fab­ulous stage & cos­tume design is a cre­ation of Jürgen Rose.

"L’Upupa" is also avail­able on DVD.