The fiery Elias
| Work data | |
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| Title: | The fiery Elias |
| Shape: | Folk operetta |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Rudi Gfaller |
| Libretto : | Hermann Demel and Maximilian Gottwald |
| Premiere: | July 27, 1963 |
| Place of premiere: | Bad Ischl, Kurhaus |
| Playing time: | 2 hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Bad Ischl, autumn 1957 |
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The fiery Elias is an Austrian folk operetta in three acts by Rudi Gfaller (composer), Hermann Demel (folk writer) and Maximilian Gottwald (journalist). It premiered in 1963 at the Bad Ischl Operetta Festival .
Plot and locations
The action takes place in the fall of 1957.
Act One - At Bad Ischl Train Station: The old train driver Birnstingl and the young bus driver Radlmayer get into a dispute over whether the bus or the train is the better means of transport. A generation and interest conflict arises; In addition, there is a family quarrel, because Radlmayer and Birnstingl's daughter are lovers. The civil servant Ing. Schönwald travels from Vienna, who has to arrange the closure of the deficit local railway. He's also in love: with Birnstingl's second daughter. Elias Schnappke, a vacationing reporter from Berlin, becomes entangled in the events.
Second act - In the train driver's apartment: Birnstingl and his wife celebrate their silver wedding anniversary. The two daughters bring their lovers to the festival. The conflicts escalate due to the tense professional situation and a misdirected love letter. Relations are breaking up.
Third act - On the Siruskogl (Bad Ischler Aussichtsberg): The traditional costume association organizes a ball. All participants and opponents meet again. The lovers are looking for reconciliation, the Berlin reporter gets to know the Ischl customs, Birnstingl is desperate. Ing. Schönwald announced that all local railroad employees would be taken over into the service of the Federal Railroad. The knots loosen.
Orchestration and music
Piano reduction, arranged by Eduard Macku . Orchestral parts, arranged by Günther Kastner.
Origin and historical background
At the end of September 1957, after 64 years of operation, the private railway line between Salzburg and Bad Ischl, the Salzkammergut Local Railway , was discontinued. All local railway employees were taken over into the service of the Austrian Federal Railways.
Shortly before that, on September 21, 1957, a silent march had taken place in Salzburg from the train station to Residenzplatz. After many rallies and petitions, this was one last protest against the political decision to give road traffic priority over railways.
In 1960/61, the journalist Maximilian Gottwald (1899–1963) and the railway worker and folk writer Hermann Demel (1897–1986), both born in Bad Ischler, wrote the folk play “Der fierige Elias” on this topic and on the love of the railroad.
In 1961 the composer Rudi Gfaller (1882–1972) began to set some songs from the folk piece to music. On August 15, 1961 - in the uniform of the last local train driver - he sang the song "Meine kleine Eisenbahn" (My Little Railway) at a music evening in the Bad Ischl Kurhaus.
The success of this performance on the one hand, and on the other hand the interest of the Bad Ischl Operetta Weeks (director Eduard Macku) and Austrian television were the starting signal for the reworking of the folk piece into a folk operetta suitable for television. The singer Vera Svoboda (1919–2013) was also involved in the dramaturgical work. Maximilian Gottwald distanced himself because the theme and message of the folk piece would be too shallow in the operetta version, but was then satisfied with the result.
Performance and reception
- July 27, 1963: World premiere in the Kurhaus Bad Ischl as part of the Operetta Festival ; Director: Peter Dörre, Conductor: Eduard Macku ; second performance on August 15, 1963.
- Autumn 1963: TV recording of the Bad Ischl production in the Ronacher Theater in Vienna.
- November 9, 1963: Broadcast in the main evening program of Austrian television.
- August 15, 1964: Revival performance (production from 1963) in the Kurhaus Bad Ischl.
- 1965: The text is published as a stage manuscript by the Hermann Demel theater publisher, Bad Ischl.
- June 26, 1966: “The fiery Elias” goes with a parade on the occasion of “500 Years of the Bad Ischl Market Survey” - in the form of a 1: 1 model as a car body; this is a homage to the Salzkammergut local railway and an advertisement for the operetta.
- July 30, 1966: Another broadcast in the main evening program of Austrian television.
- November 10, 1967: On the occasion of the 85th birthday of the composer Rudi Gfaller, the Linz Radio Orchestra plays melodies from “Der fierige Elias” on Radio Linz and Radio Salzburg.
- April 1968: Six songs are re-recorded by ORF Radio Linz and broadcast repeatedly as a 16-minute cross-section.
- July – October 2011: At the “Operette!” Exhibition in Bad Ischl's city museum (presented by the JUMUM project - youth, music, museum; occasion: 50 years of the operetta festival) a showcase with exhibits from “The fiery Elias” is presented.
- July 10, 2014: Excerpts from the television recording are published on YouTube.
- August 6, 2014: The local newspaper Ischler Woche suggests that the operetta “Der fierige Elias” should be included in the program of the Lehár Festival Bad Ischl again .
- May – October 2017: At the exhibition “60 Years of the End of the Local Railway” in the Bad Ischl City Museum, the operetta “Der fierige Elias” is present in the form of two showcases with exhibits and a film showing two excerpts from the television production.
Text sample
- My little train
- I'm in love, so in love with my little train.
- That there is such a thing, that there is such a thing, you just can't believe it.
- You went in snow and storms, you are thrown to the iron, to the old one.
- Now it's going downhill, never uphill, you dear little train.
- I drive for thirty years on this Schnackerlbahn,
- It's always the same as it used to be, because you get used to it.
- Who says that car can replace them
- and I should never drive, I tell him: you are fools.
- Because then I can never talk because my heart almost wants to break
- when I hear the humiliation, the desolate, the local train shut down.
literature
- Margit Bachler-Rix: The sounding city. All about the Bad Ischl operetta . Bad Ischl 1977.
- Martin Demel: The writer and theater publisher, director and stage consultant Hermann Demel (1897–1986). A basic contribution to folk plays and amateur theater in the 1920–80s in the Salzkammergut . Diploma thesis, University of Innsbruck 2006.
- Hermann Demel: Railways in the Salzkammergut . In: Bad Ischl. Heimatbuch 2004 . Verlag Rudolf Wimmer, Bad Ischl 2004, pp. 413-420.
- Maximilian Gottwald: The repentance comes too late. An elegy on the Salzkammergut local railway , Neue Illustrierte Wochenschau, August 21, 1960, p. 19.
- F [ranz] X [aver] Mannert: Gasthaus Stadler im Gries and the composer Rudi Gfaller , Ischler Woche, 6 August 2014, pp. 37–39.
- Josef Musil: Brief life story of the "Fiery Elias" , Austrian New Daily Newspaper, June 30, 1963, p. 9.
- Save the local railway , poster for the silent protest march on September 21, 1957 in Salzburg.
- Kathrin Urstöger: From the Operetta Weeks to the Lehár Festival: A provincial summer theater through the ages . Diploma thesis, University of Vienna 2011.