A husband at the door
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | A husband at the door |
| Original title: | Un Mari à la porte |
| Shape: | operetta |
| Music: | Jacques Offenbach |
| Libretto : | Alfred Charlemagne Delacour and Léon Morand |
| Premiere: | June 22, 1859 |
| Place of premiere: | Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens , Paris |
| Playing time: | 45 minutes |
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A husband at the door ( Un Mari à la Porte ) is a French operetta in one act (opéra-bouffe) by Jacques Offenbach . The libretto is by Alfred Charlemagne Delacour and Léon Morand . The German version was provided by Adolf Bahn and Johann Christoph Grünbaum . The work had its world premiere on June 22, 1859 at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris .
action
Florian Specht was surprised by her husband during a shepherd's hour with a married lady and had to flee over the roofs. Now he is standing in a room in a house that is strange to him and cannot get out. When he hears voices, he hides in a chest. The newly wed Susanne enters the room indignantly, accompanied by her confidante Rosine, who tries to appease the bride. Susanne was annoyed about the behavior of her husband Martin Preller at the wedding party and with her departure she provoked the first marriage crisis on the wedding day. Raisin thinks Susanne's behavior is excessive and makes fun of it.
When Susanne then becomes even more stubborn and does not want to give in at all, Rosine changes her tactics: in a song she paints her situation and future in the brightest colors. After this longer interlude, Susanne is in a milder mood and wants to return to the festival. At the same time, Florian Specht has run out of air in the chest and, to the horror of the two women, rushes out to breathe freely again. After he has managed to contain Susanne and Raisin's panic a little, he introduces himself and tells them his life.
When the ladies finally trust him and the situation seems to have been resolved, the impatient husband knocks on the door and asks his bride to be admitted. However, she doesn't even think about it and teases her new husband by telling him about the strange man in her room. Martin Preller, of course, doesn't believe a word of her and has a lot of fun, which in turn incites the two women in the room to take the fun to the extreme.
Finally, the husband at the door becomes impatient and threatens to break it open with force. To prevent a scandal, Florian Specht decides to sacrifice himself for the honor of Susanne and Rosine and is ready to throw himself out of the window for them, but not without saying goodbye to the world in a tragic tone beforehand. When he actually jumps and lands quickly, he realizes that it was only a stone's throw from the first floor. The two women are delighted with his “heroism”, which in turn stimulates and encourages him to propose to the cheeky raisin. The husband, almost forgotten about it, finally comes in through the door and asks somewhat piqued who this young man is there, whereupon Raisin introduces Florian as her fiancé, so that in the end everyone is satisfied.
Known numbers
- «Ah! Ah! Ah! source mine piteuse! »/ Ha, ha! How are you to complain!
- «J'entends ma belle» / Listen, my beautiful, hear these tones, lovely and clear
- "Florestan Ducroquet, voilà Mesdames" / Florian Specht is my name
- «Il rit, il rit! ah par dépit mangeons, chantons, buvons »/ He laughs, but in spite of him the glass now goes from mouth to mouth
- "Pour votre honneur, oui je m'immole Et je m'en vais sauter le pas" / From all shame to free you, I courageously dare the big leap (lamentation)
literature
- Leo Melitz: Guide through the operettas . Globus-Verlag, Berlin 1917, p. 39.