Irische Legende

Egk wrote his own libretto based on The Countess Cathleen by Yeats which has elements of Irish mysticism from both heathen and Christian roots.

[2] Irische Legende was premiered at the Salzburg Festival on 17 August 1955, conducted by George Szell and directed by Oscar Fritz Schuh, with Inge Borkh and the young Walter Berry in leading roles.

The Salzburg Festival presented nine premieres between 1947 and 1957, including von Einem's Dantons Tod, Orff's Antigone, Blacher's Romeo und Julia and Die Liebe der Danae by Richard Strauss.

Two messengers of the devil, disguised as merchants, promise food to the hungry in return for selling their souls.

Egk explained that he liked the concept that one person could try, against all odds, to stand up for others in a seemingly hopeless situation ("dass ein Einzelner in scheinbar hoffnungsloser Lage – der eigenen Verantwortung bewusst und gegen alle Wahrscheinlichkeit – einen Ausbruch aus der Hoffnungslosigkeit unternimmt").

W. B. Yeats , on whose story the opera is based, in 1903