Plots for music by Hans Werner Henze, text by Edward Bond.
In German language
Scene 1: The general reports that an uprising has been quashed.
Among the celebrating soldiers, the second soldier dreams of escaping the war.
Scene 2: A deserter is condemned to death.
Scene 3: As the deserter waits for his execution, opera singers are forced to pay homage to the general.
The general is told by his doctor that he is going to go blind.
Scene 4: The old woman loots corpses along with her daughter. The young woman looks for the missing father of her child. The general gets an inkling of what suffering means. The deserter is executed.
Scene 5: The new governor pays homage to the general. He cannot forget the young woman's words.
Scene 6: The general draws close to the young woman. Feeling remorse, he refuses military service in the imperial army. He cannot stop the young woman from being shot. The governor has him taken to a lunatic asylum.
Scene 7: The old woman and her grandchild are surrounded by soldiers. She escapes into the river. The general curses the perpetrators.
Scene 8: In the asylum the general is surrounded by voices.
The lunatics dream of an island of peace.
The second soldier reports to the general about conditions out in the countryside and begs him to lead a revolt against the Emperor. The general refuses. He also turns away the governor, who asks him to return to the Emperor's service to set a prominent example.
Scene 9: Among his supporters, the governor complains that military power has been interrupted several times by national uprisings.
Imagining his family's misery, the second soldier turns into an assassin, murdering the governor.
Scene 10: The Emperor sees the 'mad' general as a risk to his regime. He becomes lost in philosophical thought and finally gives the order to have the general blinded.
Scene 11: The doctor reports to the general that the governor has been murdered by the second soldier, who then shot himself, his wife and his family shortly afterwards.
The general begs for blindness, madness and death.
Two murderers blind the general. The victims of his deeds appear to him.
The lunatics see the blinded general as a risk to their dream and kill him.
We stand at the river.