The hero is an owl, a legendary Shuhu-owl, a birdman. He looks like an owl, is wise, strong and can fly. His characteristics such as exceptional night vision and an unsurpassed sense of hearing have triggered magical and symbolic interpretations. As the messenger of death in ancient Greece he simultaneously carried a sinister aura. The symbolic egg in that he was hatched, had to be cracked open by force. He lives in a world warped by demagogy, lust for power and violence, an anti-Shuhu world hostile to him. (Brunhild Matthias, programme Oper Leipzig)

The fairy tale »Der Schuhu und die fliegende Prinzessin« (»The Shuhu-Owl and the flying Princess«) by Peter Hacks, the funny and cunning Brecht student, served Udo Zimmermann as the model for his identically named opera. He chose a musical organ-grinder environment in a deliberately naive attempt to create the simplicity and beauty of the artistic fairy-tale by using the elements of the Commedia dell’arte. Intolerance, complacency, ignorance and alienation combat the, by the Shuhu-owl and the princess represented, humane principles of spirit and soul.

Udo Zimmermann is the director of the Oper Leipzig since 1990 and is one of Germany’s most important composers and conductors. He created numerous orchestrations and chamber musicals, amongst his best known operas are »Die Weiße Rose« (»The white Rose«), »Levins Mühle« (»Levin’s Mill«), and »Die Wundersame Schustersfrau« (»The wondrous Cobbler Woman«). »The Shuhu-Owl and the flying Princess« had its first showing in 1976 at the Dresdner Staatsoper. The premiere of the new version took place during August 1995 in Salzburg.