Prologue

An Animal Tamer comes on-stage and recites an introduction to the opera, couching the action in terms of animal characteristics. Lulu, in a pantomime costume, is carried out by a stage hand at the tamer's call: "Go and fetch our serpent out!"



Act One, Scene One

Lulu, in the same costume as before, but now in an artist's studio, is having her portrait painted. She is the wife of Dr. Goll and mistress of Dr. Schön, who is present with his son Alwa. When the pair leave, the Painter makes amorous advances on Lulu, who playfully makes him chase her. She is kneeling on the floor, clasping the painter's legs, when Dr. Goll arrives. He is so shocked by what he sees that he dies.



Scene Two

Time has elapsed; Lulu is married to the painter, who remains powerfully infatuated with her. The decrepit old Schigolch pays her a visit; it's clear that he knows her character and her past, but their relationship is never spelled out. Dr. Schön also comes. Although his is betrothed to another, he can't break the hold Lulu has on his passions. He reveals that Lulu lived under his "protection," as well as many more ambiguous details about her past. The young painter is so disturbed that he locks himself in the bathroom and commits suicide. It's all the same to Lulu.



Scene Three

Again, time has elapsed. Lulu is working as a theatrical dancer; she is in her dressing room with Alwa when the call comes to take to the stage. When she sees that Dr. Schön is in the audience with his fiancée, she faints on-stage, then refuses to perform. Dr. Schön bursts into the dressing room. She forces him to write a letter renouncing his future wife, then gets ready for her performance.



Act Two, Scene One

Lulu and Dr. Schön are married, but he is tormented by jealousy toward her many admirers—even toward the Countess Geschwitz, who has a homosexual crush on Lulu. Dr. Schön goes out to the stock exchange for awhile, returning to find his wife surrounded by drooling male admirers, including Schigolch and, to his horror, his own son Alwa. He pulls a revolver on the party, then hands the gun to Lulu, urging her to commit suicide. She shoots him, then pleads with Alwa for protection. But he can do nothing and the police carry her away.



Interlude—Film

A silent film is shown, depicting Lulu's life throughout the next year, from arrest, to trial, imprisonment, medical council, the isolation ward, and the route toward her liberation.



Act Two, Scene Two

The setting is the same as that of Scene One, but now Lulu's worshippers are planning her escape. The Countess goes off to infiltrate the prison and take Lulu's place. Rodrigo, one of the admirers of Scene One, intends to take her on tour as a circus performer, but when she arrives he finds that she has grown so weak and useless that he threatens to turn her in. Lulu and Alwa, made rich by his inheritance, make plans to run away together. "Isn't this the couch your father bled to death on?" she whispers as they embrace.



Act Three, Scene One

There is a dinner party going on at the sumptuous Parisian home of Lulu and Alwa. The guests include Schigolch, Rodrigo, a Marquis, a Banker, the Painter, and the Countess. They're boasting of their wealth, which is tied up in Jungfrau railway shares. Rodrigo and the Marquis turn on Lulu, using the fact that she remains wanted in Germany to blackmail her; the Marquis wants to sell her to a brothel in Cairo for 1200 marks. Then they learn that Jungfrau shares have crashed, and the party turns into a nest of hostilities. Lulu swaps clothes with a young man and rushes out with Alwa, narrowly escaping capture by the police.



Scene Two

Lulu now lives in a dismal London apartment with Alwa and Schigolch, so poor that she has been driven into prostitution. Tonight is her "debut." Lulu brings home her first client, a tight-lipped professor. Soon after he leaves, the Countess arrives unexpectedly, bearing a surprise. It's the portrait of the young Lulu from the first scene, which the men hang, making happy, nostalgic statements, marveling at her past beauty. An angry black client of Lulu's gets into a scuffle with her, and Alwa winds up getting killed. Later, Lulu disappears into the bedroom with her next client, Jack the Ripper, as the Countess makes resolutions to start a new life. Lulu's scream of death pierces the air. As the killer leaves the apartment, he stabs the Countess, who dies even as she proclaims her devotion to Lulu.

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