Wanda Walfisch

Every Wednesday, Wanda drags herself sullenly to the swimming pool. She doesn't feel comfortable there because the other children make fun of her corpulence and call her "Wanda Whale". When the swimming instructor notices that Wanda is losing all joy in swimming, he opens up to her that the real problem is not the others at all, and even less her body. It is much more a question of her attitude towards herself and her imagination. If she imagines herself to be light as a feather, then she is. Equipped with this idea, Wanda faces her fears and the world, and becomes more and more a self-confident girl, who in the end convinces the other children in the swimming pool that she can be happy in the water like a fish - and swims like one.

Anna Wenzel adapted this picture book by Davide Calì and Sonja Bougaeva with 15 pieces of music by old masters from the Renaissance into a children's opera about the power of one's own thoughts and imagination.