Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Music by Kurt Schwertsik
Text adapted by Donald Sturrock

Goldilocks and the Three Bears has proved itself to be a very flexible and witty work of music theatre. It is set in a courtroom in the forest, with two animal lawyers, an animal judge and jury, and of course a family of bears who turn the tables on the would-be litigant, Miss Goldie Locks. The work is based on Dahl's version of the traditional fairy-tale from his irreverent book of comic verse, Revolting Rhymes and the music is a brilliant series of dances, interludes and melodramas written for a conventional chamber orchestra.

Goldilocks was premiered by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under HK Gruber in the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow in 1997. Critics were unanimous in their praise of Schwertsik's "biting irony" and "comic invention". Since its premiere the work has had successful stage presentations in Canada, where a revised and reduced version was presented and in Germany, where it has been recorded. It also exists as a concert suite called 'Goldilocks Dances'.

For narrator/s and symphony orchestra

30 minutes
Published by Boosey and Hawkes

Orchestrations

1 upwards Narrator/s 8.6.4.4.2. 2.2.2.2. 2.2.0.0. timp

The work can be presented in staged, semi-staged or concert versions.

Translations

German
Dutch

Educational Support

Performance History

1997: World Premiere - Glasgow (SCO / Gruber)
1998: Vale of Glamorgan Festival, Seville (Goldilocks Dances)
1999: CBC Vancover SO
2000: Vienna, US Premiere - Chambersberg, Penn
2002: Villach, Austria
2004: Rotterdam Philharmonic
2006: Bern, Switzerland
2007: Luxembourg
2010: London and Chatham (CLS / Wheeler)

School Musical Version
(publisher: A & C Black)

Teacher's Pack

Recordings