The Vanishing Bridegroom

Act I: The Inheritance

Three sons are at their dying father’s bedside (‘There was a man’). A Doctor is also in attendance. The father revives for a moment, and with his last words, tells his sons that there is a sum of money in a chest of drawers (‘Sons, my sons!). He instructs them to share it fairly, and to take care of his land. With one last prayer to god, the man draws his last breath and falls back onto the bed (‘Farewell to him’).

Excited by the prospect of money, the sons immediately look for their inheritance in the chest of drawers, and are devastated to find it missing (‘Gone!’). They mourn the loss of their fortunes, and consider if there was ever any money in the first place. The Doctor, who was a good friend of their father, reassures them that their father never told a lie. If he said there was money there, then there should be money there (‘I knew your father certainly’). To try to work out where the money has gone, he tells the sons a parable.

A Bride and her Lover