Das unterbrochene Opferfest

The fact that this happened with a libretto actually more typical of the Wiener Vorstadttheater [de] with intermingled comic scenes and spoken dialogue is less surprising when one considers that Italian adaptations contained recomposed recitatives, some accompanied by string quartet, and in theatre practice everything was also gradually reduced to the serious sphere, which, however, deprives the work of original and by no means disturbing plot elements and musical numbers.

Scholtze's Vollständiger Opernführer in the 1910 edition gives the plot as follows (slightly modernised linguistically):[3] The Englishman Murney has liberated Peru from the Portuguese and won the friendship of the regent.

The head priest Villac Umu and the fanatical people energetically demand Murney's death by fire, so that the gods' command will be fulfilled and the country will not fall prey to the revenge of the celestials.

With the greatest reluctance, the Inca, harassed from all sides, especially by Mafferu, and reminded of his royal duty, finally gives in and has Murney led to the funeral pyre, where Roka is already waiting with his faithful to thwart the murderous attempt.

Winter's score, with only a slight tribute to the "couleur locale" of the exotic setting Peru and alongside some more conventional numbers with stereotypical melodic phrases, also features a whole series of theatrically effective mass and ensemble scenes.