The clever Susanne

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Work data
Title: The clever Susanne
Shape: Singspiel
Original language: German
Music: Franz Xaver Lehner
Libretto : Lope de Vega in the translation by Hans Schlegel
Literary source: La discreta enamorada by Lope de Vega
Premiere: January 13, 1952
Place of premiere: Nuremberg
Playing time: approx. 2 ½ hours
Place and time of the action: Madrid in the middle of the
17th century
people
  • Susanne ( soprano )
  • Belisa, her mother ( old )
  • Bernardo, captain ( bass buffo )
  • Lucindo, his son ( baritone )
  • Hernando, his servant ( tenor buffo )
  • Gerarda, a half-world lady ( soubrette )
  • Doristeo, first cavalier ( tenor )
  • Finardo, second cavalier ( bass )
  • Fulminato, Bernardo's servant (speaking role)
  • A singer (tenor)
  • Passers-by, servants, guards (extras)

The clever Susanne is a comic opera in two acts (eight pictures) by Franz Xaver Lehner . The libretto is based on the comedy La discreta enamorada by Lope de Vega in the German arrangement by Hans Schlegel . The work had its world premiere on January 13, 1952 in Nuremberg .

orchestra

Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, a tuba, a timpani, a percussion, a celesta and strings

Sequence of images

1st act , 1st image: room , 2nd image: street , 3rd image: park , 4th image: street , 5th image: room ;
2nd act , 6th image: street , 7th image: street , 8th image: room

action

The widowed Seniora Belisa, who is still in her prime, lives alone with her pretty daughter Susanne in Madrid. The old captain Bernardo lives in the neighborhood with his son Lucindo. Susanne adores him and wants nothing more than that he ask for her hand as soon as possible. Lucindo, however, feels drawn to the demi-world lady Gerarda. One day the captain announces his visit to the ladies. Both are excited; but when Bernardo arrives and only expresses interest in the daughter, the euphoria quickly turns into disappointment.

When Lucindo finds the opportunity to get to know Susanne better, his heart immediately flares up for this girl and quickly makes him forget Gerarda. The young people confess their love. Susanne knows how to steer fate in such a way that after all sorts of trials and tribulations, not only she and Lucindo, but also her mother and the captain become a couple.

music

The clever Susanne is an entertainment opera par excellence with the means of an extended tonality, a witty parlando and a differentiated rhythm. She manages without a choir and without ballet.

swell

Hellmuth Steger / Karl Howe: Opernführer , Fischer Bücherei Frankfurt am Main, paperback No. 49 (April 1961 edition)