The adventures of King Pausole
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The adventures of King Pausole |
| Original title: | Les aventures du Roi Pausole |
| Original language: | French |
| Music: | Arthur Honegger |
| Libretto : | Albert Willemetz , based on a novel by Pierre Louÿs |
| Premiere: | December 12, 1930 |
| Place of premiere: | Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens , Paris |
| people | |
|
|
The adventures of the king Pausole ( French: Les aventures du Roi Pausole) is an operetta in three acts by Arthur Honegger from 1930. The libretto based on the 1901 novel by Pierre Louÿs is by Albert Willemetz , the German version by Hans Carpenter. The world premiere took place on December 12, 1930 in the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris and was given over 500 more times after a successful premiere.
Although Honegger's fame is based on monumental oratorios , symphonic music and the religious stage work Johanna at the stake , he also wrote three operettas in the 1930s, which documents his openness to different genres. The other operettas La Belle de Moudon from 1931 and Les Petites Cardinal from 1938 could not establish themselves in German-speaking countries. Also Les aventures du Roi Pausole is nowadays rarely played.
The piece is the cheeky utopia of an anti-militarist, but emphatically lust-friendly state and at the same time, with its cheeky allusions and frivolous mix-ups, a tongue-in-cheek satire on the revealing zeitgeist of the 1920s.
In 1933 the play was filmed under the title Les aventures du roi Pausole under the direction of Alexis Granowsky with Emil Jannings and Josette Day .
action
King Pausole has a harem with 366 women in his fabulous kingdom of Tryphème , each of whom is “Queen for a day” every year, so that there would be plenty of amorous variety, but the women are not particularly interested in the king. In vain does Diane, today's “Queen of Service” strive to be with him. The king, however, knows completely different worries: his beloved daughter Aline has fallen in love with Prince Charmant, in reality the disguised dancer Mirabelle, and ran away with him. Giglio, the page, advises the king to go with him to find the runaway, which the king is happy to respond to because he hopes this trip will bring a change from the monotony of his life.
At the “Goldener Hahn” dairy, the king's first travel stop, the situation is confused, as the king's daughter has already found refuge here with her supposed lover and lives in the only acceptable room. In any case, the king is prevented from staying too long, as Taxis, his minister and Dame Perchuque tell him about a revolution among his abandoned “queens”, which makes his presence at court urgently necessary. So he misses the frivolous seduction games that his page plays with Aline and Mirabelle. Both travel back to Tryphème, but because of the precarious situation in his harem, the king stays at the Hotel Bouffe Royal . Aline and Mirabelle also return and finally Aline finally finds the right man in the cheeky page Giglio (who already here and there had to represent the king with his wives). After some further mix-ups, Pausole finally gives his consent to a wedding and decides to abdicate as king and become a butterfly collector.
music
The extensive absence of a plausible plot and the suggestive text interspersed with frivolous wit and piquant contemporary political allusions bring the work close to Offenbach burlesque , whose value lies in Honegger's imaginative music, which is influenced by Spanish folklore as well as jazz elements and sensitive melodies plays. The score does not contain any really catchy melodies that have become well-known songs, but consistently consists of harmonic, rhythmic and aurally interesting pieces. The best known are the comic choir cantata "Vive le Roi Pausole", the duet Dianes with Giglio, the trio "The peach is like her cheeks (Alaine, Mibabelle and Giglio) and the song of the" Spanish chocolate "(Thierette) kept in bolero rhythm . .
literature
- Arthur Honegger: The Adventures of King Pausole. Operetta in three acts. Text book of chants . Apollo-Verlag, Zurich 1954.
- Pierre Louÿs: The Adventures of King Pausolos. Erotic novel ("Les aventures du roi Pausole"). Greno, Nördlingen 1988, ISBN 3-89190-892-X .