The Golden Touch – Synopsis
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The song “Tricky Wishes” introduces the story of the Phrygian king Midas who comes upon an elderly faun, Silenus (a schoolteacher who had too much to drink the night before), asleep in the king’s rose garden. Midas, who likes to escape there where no one will laugh at his hairy donkey ears which Apollo has given him in revenge for losing a song competition. The king invites Silenus for a stay at the palace where the old schoolmaster entertains everyone with stories of gorgons and other legendary characters. Appreciating Midas’s kindness to Silenus, the god Dionysus offers the king the gift of a wish. He can have anything he wants. After a debate with his wife over what to wish for (beauty? No more donkey ears?) he decides to ask that anything he touches will turn to gold. Dionysus grants the wish. Midas hurries to his garden and realizes the folly of what he has asked for when a precious rose turns to hard gold metal. Everything he touches—even his daughter Zoe becomes a golden statue. Midas flees to the forest where the fauns find him and they plead with Dionysus to revoke the wish. The god relents and tells Midas to bathe in the river to rid himself of the golden touch. Returning home, he is tenderly reunited with his daughter who has regained her human form. The last song, “The Golden Touch,” celebrates all the wondrous gold to be found in nature, everything from goldfish to sun’s rays, to daffodils.