Pandora's Box: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Pandora's Box, credited to Frank Wedekind, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Pandora's Box by Frank Wedekind, translated by Samuel Atkins Eliot, Jr. Pandora's Box (1904) (Die Büchse der Pandora) is a play by the German dramatist Frank Wedekind. It forms the second part of his pairing of 'Lulu' plays (the first is Earth Spirit [1895]), both of which depict a society "riven by the demands of lust and greed". G. W. Pabst directed a silent film version (Pandora's Box), which was loosely based on the play, in 1929. Both plays together also formed the basis for the opera Lulu by Alban Berg in 1935 (premiered posthumously in 1937). Following the events of Earth Spirit, Pandora's Box charts the downward spiral of Lulu and her companions. Lulu once again plays the role of unwitting temptress, a siren-like libertine who seals the destruction of her friends and lovers. The play begins with Lulu's escape from prison, shows us the formation of a perverse makeshift family unit, and documents the deterioration of her social standing and personal freedom. With an almost fatalistic precision, Wedekind concludes the play in a shocking scene of vice and violence. The premiere of Pandora's Box, a restricted performance due to difficulties with the censor, took place in Nuremberg on 1 February 1904. The 1905 Viennese premiere, again restricted, was instigated by the satirist Karl Kraus. (Summary by Wikipedia) Cast Lulu: Amanda Friday Alva Schon: Chuck Williamson Schigolch: Alan Mapstone Rodrigo Quast/Kungu Poti: Wupperhippo Alfred Hugenberg: Charlotte Duckett Countess Geschwitz: Caprisha Page Bianetta/Kadidia: Sally Mc Ludmilla Steinherz/Narrator: Elizabeth Klett Magelone: Margaret Espaillat Count Casti Piani: Algy Pug Puntschu: Alan Weyman Heilmann/Dr. Hilti: bala Bob: rookieblue Detective: Grendel B. Lightyear Jack: Bob Gonzalez Audio edited by Chuck Williamson

Recording facts

• Recording title: Pandora's Box
• Author credits: Frank Wedekind
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 3
• Listed recording duration: 2:14:52

Catalogue topics

• audio
• drama
• play
• wedekind
• lulu
• modernist drama
• german literature

Track guide

1. 01 - Act I — 40:21
2. 02 - Act II — 50:38
3. 03 - Act III — 43:56

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.