Adrienne (operetta)
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| Title: | Adrienne |
| Shape: | operetta |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Walter W. Goetze |
| Libretto : | Oskar Felix |
| Literary source: | Adrienne Lecouvreur from Scribe and Legouvé |
| Premiere: | April 24, 1926 |
| Place of premiere: | Hamburg |
| Place and time of the action: | Courland and Saxony 1726 |
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Adrienne is an operetta in three acts by Walter Wilhelm Goetze . The original libretto was written by Günther Bibo and Alexander Pordes-Milo . They were based on the comedy Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé . It premiered on April 24, 1926 in Hamburg. Oskar Felix , one of the composer's main librettists, reworked the text ten years later for Berlin. The operetta then prevailed in this version.
orchestra
Two flutes, an oboe, two clarinets, a bassoon, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, a harp, a celesta, percussion and strings.
action
The operetta takes place in Mitau (Duchy of Courland) and in Dresden (Kingdom of Saxony) in 1726
August the Strong pursues the plan to incorporate the Duchy of Courland into the Saxon crown possession. Therefore, his son Moritz Kurland's widowed Duchess Anna Ivanovna is to marry. She is impressed by the plan and has already obtained the permission of her aunt, Tsarina Katharina. But while she is in Russia, her fiancé Moritz receives his lover, the dancer Adrienne Lecouvreur, in his castle. Anna Ivanovna is told of Moritz's antics. Angrily, she orders that the wedding be postponed indefinitely.
Moritz has now managed to reconcile with his bride, but it doesn't take long before he meets the French dancer again. Count Kayserling did not go undiscovered, and he informed Duchess Anna of it. Now she has had enough of Moritz. She breaks her engagement with him and wants to have the dancer arrested. But before the captors reach her, she manages to escape.
King August the Strong has invited to a royal congress in Dresden. Duchess Anna of Courland is also present. The king learns that his plan to enlarge the Saxon sphere of influence by marrying his son has failed miserably.
Adrienne is currently on tour in Dresden. She meets up with Moritz again. Although the two make up again, Adrienne Moritz makes it clear that this was the last day on which she exchanged a word with him.
music
The biggest hit of the operetta is the so-called brandy song of the Duchess of Courland in the first act. It begins with the words My aunt lives in the Russian Empire , and every stanza is followed by the refrain. The brandy tastes fine in every country . The other musical numbers take a backseat behind this song.