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What she did for love! München
Gärtnerplatz Theater
06/15/2025 - & June 17, 18, July 8*, 9, 2025, January 28, February 1, 3, 8, 2026
Gian Carlo Menotti: The Old Maid and the Thief
Anna Agathonos (Miss Todd), Jeremy Boulton (Bob), Sophia Keiler (Laetitia), Frances Lucey (Miss Pinkerton)
Orchester des Staatstheaters am Gärtnerplatz, Oleg Ptashnikov (conductor)
Alexander Kreuselberg (stage director), Rainer Sinell (sets & costumes), Peter Hörtner (lights), Karin Bohnert (dramaturgy)
J. Boulton, S. Keiler (© Anna Schnauss)
Premiered in 1939 as a “radio opera,” The Old Maid and the Thief is a morality tale inspired by Menotti’s visit to the family of his partner, the composer Samuel Barber (1910‑1981). It was there that he understood that small towns, despite tranquil appearances, are full of secrets, and that even the most proper seeming people may not be as we perceive them.
Miss Todd, an old maid, and a pillar of society in her small town, lives with her young maid Laetitia, who’s worried that she too may one day be relegated to such a fate. Bob, a handsome transient, rings their bell in the hope of some alms. As he’s good‑looking, Laetitia convinces her mistress to let him stay. To avoid scandal, they pretend he’s Steve, Miss Todd’s young cousin, who fell ill while visiting.
Miss Pinkerton, another spinster and gossipmonger, informs Miss Todd there’s an escaped convict on the lam and advises her to lock her doors and windows. Miss Todd runs home and orders Laetitia to send Bob away, as he is likely the said escapee. However, Laetitia, attracted to Bob, wants him to stay. She insinuates to the old woman that Bob is attracted to her, and the old fool believes her.
To prevent him from escaping them, and thereby exposing their false narrative and their guilt for harbouring a criminal, Miss Todd bribes Bob with money stolen from charities she administers, and eventually from her neighbours. The bored young man insists on leaving, as he’s in need of alcohol and Miss Todd has none. Laetitia convinces Miss Todd that as both alcohol and stealing are sins, stealing alcohol isn’t a sin. The two women proceed to break into the town’s liquor store.
Panic takes over when Miss Pinkerton informs Miss Todd that as thefts and break‑ins have become rampant, the town has hired a detective who will soon figure out who and where the thief is. Miss Todd confronts Bob, asking him to escape for his own good – as well as hers. Bob declares that having done nothing, he has no reason to escape. Miss Todd breaks down, asking him if he cares so little for her that she could end up in jail. He replies that he does not care at all.
As a furious Miss Todd leaves home, threatening police action, Laetitia convinces Bob to run away and take her with him. As Bob will be accused of all town thefts, he decides he might as well be a thief. He and Laetitia proceed to empty Miss Todd’s home of its valuables. When the old maid returns home, she realizes her perfect, proper life is now in ruins.
This short, one-act opera in fourteen scenes has two melodious arias, one assigned to Bob and one for Laetitia. Bob’s aria, “When the air sings of summer,” is an ode to freedom sung by a wretch who, despite comfortably freeloading at the spinster’s, misses his freedom. Australian Jeremy Boulton impressed with his high, virile baritone. Heard two days earlier as the Mayor of Padua in Bizet’s Le Docteur Miracle, Boulton’s versatility is a marvel to behold. In the Bizet, he was captivating as a bombastic old fool and yet, astonishingly, equally credible here as a troubled youth yearning for freedom. The ingenious element in both Menotti’s libretto and Alexander Kreuselberg’s staging is that we’re never certain whether Bob is in fact the escaped convict, or just a harmless drifter innocently searching for whatever unknown pleasures life may have in store for him.
Rainer Sinell’s sets and costumes faithfully captured 1950s America, when no one locked their doors in small towns. By dividing the stage in two, Miss Todd’s quaint New England-style living room, with its knick‑knacks and spartan kitchen is on one side, and Laetitia’s room (relinquished to Bob) is on the other. The effect is that we’re able to observe all the action simultaneously. This clever device worked flawlessly.
Greek mezzo Anna Agathonos was a commanding Miss Todd, whose inspiration could easily have been Angela Lansbury (1925‑2022) of Murder, She Wrote fame. Alas, Miss Todd was not as wise as the series’ Jessica Fletcher. Agathonos portrayed the old spinster convincingly, with the nervous mannerisms and eccentricities one associates with older unmarried women. All that was missing were cats. Her dark mezzo informed her authority and contrasted marvellously with Laetitia’s light soprano.
Though one may initially perceive Miss Todd to be the main protagonist, Laetitia is in fact the puppet master setting everything in motion. A true conniving soubrette, she makes the plans, and Miss Todd and Bob execute them. Austrian coloratura Sophia Keiler portrayed Laetitia masterfully. Despite her machinations, she managed to remain likeable. Her vocal prowess also captured the audience during her memorable aria, “What curse for a woman, is a timid man. Steal me, sweet thief,” where she displayed her impressive voice and its pleasingly easy high register.
Miss Pinkerton, played by Frances Lucey, is a role more parlando than sung. Nonetheless, it’s an important role for context. At the start of the opera, her bickering with Miss Todd over their true ages and regretful romantic lives was quite hilarious. Also, as the gossipmonger, she was the one who informed Miss Todd and the public about the goings on in town.
Despite its surface triviality, on further examination the story is revealed to be infinitely more profound. For one, it questions our understanding of morality. Despite being honest and well-intentioned, Miss Todd – an allegory for all – becomes irrational due to her lack of affection or a significant other in her life. Though she receives no affection, she deludedly believes – with Laetitia’s encouragement – that Bob is attracted to her. In hopes of keeping Bob at her home and of increasing his imaginary interest in her, Miss Todd slides down the moral ladder, first by embezzling from the charities she administers, then stealing from neighbours and friends, and finally by breaking into a liquor store (she who shuns alcohol). How could this honest woman stoop so low? Why would a person – in no financial need – steal, under normal circumstances? The answer is they would not. However, under different circumstances, such as hunger, or hunger for affection, anyone can break the values we once held sacred. We are more vulnerable than we think!
Ossama el Naggar
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