The Merry Widow

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Work data
Title: The Merry Widow
Shape: operetta
Original language: German
Music: Franz Lehár
Libretto : Victor Léon, Leo Stein
Premiere: December 30, 1905
Place of premiere: Vienna, Theater an der Wien
Playing time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Place and time of the action: Paris
people
  • Baron Mirko Zeta, Pontevedrin envoy to Paris ( baritone )
  • Valencienne, his wife ( soprano )
  • Count Danilo Danilowitsch, legation secretary, cavalry lieutenant i. R. ( tenor or baritone )
  • Hanna Glawari ( soprano )
  • Camille de Rosillon ( tenor )
  • Viscount Cascada (tenor)
  • Raoul de Saint-Brioche (tenor)
  • Bogdanovich, Pontevedrin Consul (baritone)
  • Sylviane, his wife (soprano)
  • Kromow, Pontevedrin Legation Councilor (baritone)
  • Olga, his wife (soprano)
  • Pritschitsch, Pontevedrin Colonel in retirement (baritone)
  • Praškowia, his wife ( mezzo-soprano )
  • Njegus, chancellor at the Pontevedrin embassy, ​​character comedian (speaking role)
  • Lolo, Dodo, Jou-Jou, Frou-Frou, Clo-Clo, Margot, Grisetten (soprano)
  • Paris and Pontevedrian society Guslaren , musicians, servants.
Title page piano reduction (1906)
First page of the piano reduction. In the picture Mizzi Günther and Louis Treumann

The Merry Widow is an operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár . The libretto is by Victor Léon and Leo Stein after Henri Meilhacs comedy L'attaché d'ambassade of 1861. It was first performed under the baton of the composer on 30 December 1905 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna instead; the main roles were played by Mizzi Günther and Louis Treumann .

The operetta lasts two and three quarters of an hour and takes place in Paris .

The Merry Widow is Lehár's most successful and best-known operetta. Between 1905 and 1948, the year the composer died , it was performed over 300,000 times worldwide and made several films .

In 1929 the composer published a revue version of the operetta. Fritzi Massary played the main role. At their request, the song I'll get you from heaven blue was added to this work. But they soon returned to the original version.

The Merry Widow is the perfect example of an operetta from the silver operetta era of the Viennese operetta .

action

For hierarchical family reasons, Count Danilo was not allowed to marry Hanna, a country girl. While he tries to forget his worries with the Grisettes after this marriage ban , Hanna manages to marry the rich banker Glawari, who dies on their wedding night. At the ball of the Paris embassy in Pontevedro (for the Pontevedrin embassy that of Montenegro was originally incorporated, "which the censors thought was too real at the time"), Hanna and Danilo meet again. This is where the action of the operetta begins. Hanna is now a wealthy widow, and every man desperately wants to marry her - not because of her beauty and intelligence , but because of her money. Danilo's love for Hanna also flares up again, but he doesn't dare to confess this to her - for fear that he would also be accused of being only interested in her money. But the situation becomes even more complicated. Because Hanna declares her engagement to Camille de Rosillon in order to protect Valencienne, who claims to be “a decent woman”, but flirts with Camille and is almost caught by her husband. Only when this incident has been resolved and Hanna pretends that she is not allowed to dispose of her inheritance, Hanna and Danilo can hug each other.

The operetta impresses with its salon and dance scenes, with the completely new and erotic instrumentation for the time it was created, as well as a new subject : a self-confident and strong woman asserts herself in the male world. During the action, Hanna holds the reins in her hand. Erotic and political allusions of the time make the operetta interesting across national borders.

Music numbers

1st act

(plays in Paris around 1900 in the Salon of the Pontevedrin Legation Palace)
  • No. 1. Introduction (Valencienne, Sylviane, Olga, Praškowia, Camille, St. Brioche, Zeta, Cascada, Kromow, choir):
"Dearest Ladies and Gentlemen"
  • No. 2. Duet (Valencienne, Camille):
"So come"
  • No. 3. Entreelied der Hanna and Ensemble (Hanna, St. Brioche, Cascada, men's choir):
"Please, gentlemen"
  • No. 4. Performance song (Danilo):
"O Vaterland" (original refrain text: "There I go to Maxim ", slang text: "There I go to Maxim")
  • No. 5. Duet (the magic of domesticity) (Valencienne, Camille):
"Yes what - a cozy little room"
  • No. 6. Finale I (Hanna, Valencienne, Sylviane, Danilo, Camille, St. Brioche, Cascada, choir):
"Ladies choice"

2nd act

(plays one day later in Hanna Glawari's castle)
  • No. 7. Introduction, dance and Vilja song (song from the forest maid) (Hanna, choir):
"Please linger here now"
"There is a Vilja"
  • No. 8. Duet (Song of the Stupid Rider) (Hanna, Danilo):
"Hey, girl, looked up"
  • No. 9. March septet (Danilo, Zeta, St. Brioche, Cascada, Kromow, Bogdanowitsch, Pritschitsch):
"How women are treated"
  • No. 10. Play scene and dance duet (Hanna and Danilo)
  • No. 11. Duet and Romance (Valencienne, Camille):
"My friend, reason"
"Like a rosebud"
  • No. 12. Finale II (Hanna, Valencienne, Sylviane, Olga, Praškowia, Danilo, Camille, Zeta, Bogdanowitsch, Kromow, Pritschitsch, Njegus, choir):
"Ha! Ha! We ask"
  • No. 12a. Entr'akt (Vilja song)

3rd act

(plays in the castle of Hanna Glawari)
  • No. 12b. Interlude
  • No. 13. Dance scene
  • No. 14. Chanson (Grisettenlied) (Valencienne, Lolo, Dodo, Jou-Jou, Frou-Frou, Clo-Clo, Margot, Danilo, Zeta, Bogdanowitsch, Pritschitsch, Kromow, choir):
"Yes, it's us, the grisettes"
  • No. 14a. Reminiscences (Lolo, Dodo, Jou-Jou, Frou-Frou, Clo-Clo, Margot, Danilo):
"I'll go to Maxim"
  • No. 15. Duet (Hanna, Danilo):
"Silent lips"
  • No. 16. Closing song (all solos, choir):
"Yes, the study of women is difficult"

Film adaptations

Trivia

  • In 1907 " Mitislaw der Moderne " (text: Fritz Grünbaum and Robert Bodanzky ; music: Franz Lehár) was premiered in the cabaret "Hölle". "Mitislaw der Moderne" is a parody of the Merry Widow , based on the grisette act. Published by Glockenverlag . The plot revolves around Prince Mitislaw, who is establishing an erotic dictatorship in the Balkan state of Gasoline.
  • “The Merry Widow” was Adolf Hitler's favorite operetta. The Jewish librettists Léon and Stein were not mentioned in performances during the Nazi era. Josef Greiner claimed in his book Das Ende des Hitler-Mythos 1947 that Hitler applied to the Theater an der Wien as a singer with a song from The Merry Widow during his stay in Vienna and was only rejected by director Wilhelm Karczag because he did not Wore tailcoats. Like other less credible stories by Greiner, this report was also taken up repeatedly.
  • The Maxim song is presented with a few variations of the title line: “There I go to Maxim”, there I go to Maxim or “There I go to Maxim”, which is common on the popular recordings (example René Kollo ). At Heesters it is also said "Today I'm going to Maxim", occasionally you can also find "Then I'll go to Maxim."
  • Dmitri Schostakowitsch uses motifs from the song “There I go to Maxim” in the first movement of his 7th symphony (“Leningrader”). For his part, Béla Bartók quotes Shostakovich's use of these melodic motifs in his Concerto for Orchestra , Movement IV Intermezzo interrotto, Allegro.
  • On December 8th, 2009 Johannes Heesters performed at the age of 106 at a concert of the Vienna Robert-Stolz-Club “Da I go to Maxim”.
  • "Lips are silent, 's whisper violins" acts as the main theme in Alfred Hitchcock's film " Shadow of a Doubt " ( "Shadow of a Doubt", 1943), is there, however, as the "Merry Widow Waltz" ( "Funny Widow Waltz" ) designated.
  • In 1970, Franz Marischka staged the show The Merry Widow on the Ice with Marika Kilius , Hans-Jürgen Bäumler and Manfred Schnelldorfer in Berlin's Deutschlandhalle .
  • The Cologne Men's Singing Association satirized the topic in its divertissement 2011 under the title The Cologne Widow .

score

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Newspaper Review January 2, 1906  - Sources and Full Texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theater and amusements. Theater an der Wien. In:  Neue Freie Presse , December 30, 1905, p. 17 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp
  2. ↑ The cast of the premiere:
    Baron Mirko Zeta: Siegmund Natzler
    Valencienne: Annie Wünsch
    Count Danilo Danllowitsch: Louis Treumann
    Hanna Glawari: Mizzi Günther
    Camille de Rosillon: Karl Meister
    Vicomte Cascada: Leo v. Keller
    Raoul de Saint-Brioche: Carlo Böhm
    Bogdanowitsch: Fritz Albin
    Sylviane: Bertha Ziegler
    Kromow: Heinrich Pirk
    Olga: Minna Schütz
    Pritschitsch: Julius Brammer
    Praškowia: Lili Wiska
    Njegus: Oskar Sachs
  3. ↑ Operetta Lexicon
  4. ↑ Pontevedro is a fantasy name; from Göttinger Tageblatt from January 31, 2012 ( Memento from January 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Stefan Frey : Franz Lehár or the bad conscience of light music , Niemeyer, Tübingen 1995, chap. II