Spring air
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Spring air |
| Shape: | operetta |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Josef Strauss |
| Libretto : | Karl Lindau and Julius Wilhelm |
| Literary source: | “Coquin de printemps” by Adolf Jaime and Georges Duval |
| Premiere: | May 9, 1903 |
| Place of premiere: | Vienna |
| Place and time of the action: | Vienna around 1900 |
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Spring air is an operetta in three acts with music by Josef Strauss . In contrast to his brother Johann, Josef Strauss never wrote an operetta himself. The work was only created around 30 years after his death. Ernst Reiterer had put the music together after Strauss' waltzes and other dances in order to make it accessible on the stage as well as the concert hall. The libretto was written by Karl Lindau and Julius Wilhelm . It is based on the French Vaudeville Coquin de Printemps by Adolf Jaime and Georges Duval. Reiterer worked on it from January 29th to April 6th, 1903. The work had its world premiere on May 9, 1903 in the Vienna summer theater establishment "Venice" . August Pepöck (music) and Bruno Hardt-Warden provided a new version in 1943 .
orchestra
Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, a harp, large percussion and strings
action
The operetta takes place in Vienna in spring at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries
first act
Image: Law firm
The aging Baron von Fallersee and his wife Ida, who could be his daughter by age, are looking for lawyer Dr. Gustav Landtmann in his office. The couple want to get a divorce, and Dr. Far beyond Vienna, Landtmann enjoys the reputation of being the specialist for such matters. With him, the cases often end with the brawlers reconciling. The lawyer uses a simple trick here: He flirts violently with his clients and makes their men jealous. He is particularly successful with his scam when the spring air inspires him. His wife Emilie has already caught him a couple of times making beautiful eyes on his clients. She therefore harbors - wrongly! - the suspicion that he might have been unfaithful to her. Emilie therefore asked her mother Apollonia Knickebein for a visit to help her in this affair of the heart, after all she had to hear from her many times how she had managed to banish the spring air from her husband with a special elixir.
The visit was not long in coming either; but Apollonia did not come alone. She not only had her husband Vinzenz, but also his nephew Felix, her niece Berta and, to make matters worse, the new maid Hanni in tow. The latter is in a big city for the first time and has decided to do something over the top here that is not possible at home in the provinces. When she discovers the wardrobe of the lady of the house, she cannot resist the temptation to try on a few of Emilien's clothes. The clerk Fritz Hildebrandt sees her in a chic fur coat and an elegant hat. He promptly confuses Hanni with Countess Harbach, a client of his boss, and falls head over heels in love with her. Hanni enjoys his flattery to the fullest, but refuses when he demands tenderness. A short time later he met Hanni in her clothes as a maid and fell in love with the same girl for the second time.
Second act
Image: Elegant garden pavilion
The next day, spring lets its blue ribbon flutter violently through the air, which really gets the men's blood pumping. Fritz Hildebrandt doesn't know for which lady his heart beats more, for the spirited Hanni or the elegant Countess Harbach. The girl herself feels how indecisive he is and wants to trick him. She passes him a letter from the alleged Countess Harbach, in which she calls him to a rendezvous in the Prater.
Meanwhile, Apollonia observes her son-in-law suspiciously how he deals with his female customers. She has just noticed how he is arranging a meeting with Baroness Ida von Fallersee. And the next client even more confirms her belief that Gustav Landtmann must be a Casanova: she interprets the visit of the ballet master Isabella Negrelli completely wrong. Apollonia thinks she is another lover of her son-in-law; in reality, however, the dancer is only interested in a new engagement at the court opera. However, Apollonia saw the peak of impertinence come when Gustav Landtmann recommended that she should go on vacation with Emilie for a few days.
Even the old kinked leg is not spared from the spring feeling. He has chosen the new maid as the object of his desire. But when he realizes that he can't land with her, he quickly turns to the ballet master. He invites them to take a trip to the Prater.
Third act
Image: Restoration garden in the Prater with four arbors
In the last act, the situation comedy is taken to extremes: Fritz Hildebrandt is looking forward to the rendezvous with the countess. However, she soon drops her mask and reveals her true identity. When the perplexed boy realizes that Countess Harbach and the maid Hanni are one and the same person, he has to endure a lesson in the matter of loyalty from him.
Apollonia is desperately looking for a suitable opportunity to subjugate her son-in-law with the supposed miracle elixir. Suddenly she discovers her own husband in one of the arbors complimenting the dancer Negrelli. Immediately she confronts the “seductress”. But this rejects any guilt. She goes even further and offers the old lady to secretly switch places with her.
In the meantime, the Baron von Fallersee has also been driven to the Prater. If he wanted to divorce his young wife only yesterday, today his heart is kindled anew for her. The reason for this was the jealousy which the lawyer had kindled in him. First he runs into Emilie Landtmann and Apollonia Knickebein. When they have to watch Gustav Landtmann spin with the baroness in a waltz, they are close to fainting. The old baron manages to save her from falling. He boldly lets them both sink into his arms. Now Gustav Landtmann and Vinzenz Knickebein rush over and turn the tables: They give their wives a lecture and abuse the baron. Little by little, the chaos gives way to a general reconciliation, and the lawyer is happy that the somewhat unequal Fallersee couple no longer want to get a divorce.
Individual evidence
- ↑ According to Reiterer's handwritten notes on the fair copy (holdings of the Vienna Library , MH 16778 and MH 16779).