It's in the air

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Musical dates
Title: It's in the air (A game in the warehouse)
Music: Mischa Spoliansky
Book: Marcellus Schiffer
Lyrics: Marcellus Schiffer
Original direction: Robert Forster-Larrinaga
Premiere: May 15, 1928
Place of premiere: Berlin
Playing time: around 2 h 45 min
Place and time of the action: Berlin 1920s
Roles / people
  • 6 women
  • 5 gentlemen
  • Supporting roles

It is in the air (A game in the department store) is a music revue in 24 images, with texts by Marcellus Schiffer to the music of Mischa Spoliansky on May 15, 1928 in the comedy on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin , directed by Robert Forster-Larrinaga was premiered. The place of the action is a department store as a labyrinth of life in which there seems to be almost everything from the toy department to the lost property office to the exchange office.

Background and plot

Before he became a musician, Mischa Spoliansky began an apprenticeship in Herrmann Gerson's Berlin clothing store . But he broke off his apprenticeship in order to embark on a musical career as a pianist. In 1917/1918 he studied at the Stern Conservatory and lived from his work as a piano player, first in Café Schön and then in Café Kranzler . As a sought-after theater musician and composer, he came into contact with Max Reinhardt , who engaged him in 1926 for his staging of the play Victoria by William Somerset Maugham . Here, in the comedy on Kurfürstendamm, he met Marcellus Schiffer for the first time. Their collaboration eventually led to the successful piece It's in the Air . With this work they suddenly became known and received the best reviews.

According to the musicologist Carolin Stahrenberg, the department store in this piece is to be understood as a metaphor for the world. Two children are forgotten in different departments of the department store, grow up in this house, find and love each other and finally forget their own children in this microcosm as well, a never-ending story, so to speak. The play was staged by Robert Forster-Larrinaga , the set was by Walter Trier and Emil Pirchan . Experienced and well-known actors and dancers, who had already worked with Schiffer and Spoliansky, were hired to reliably lead the rhythmic, swing- like music and the social satirical texts to success.

With the depiction of erotic freedoms in triangular relationships, like that of the lesbian couple in the song When the best friend with the best friend  - a star role by Marlene Dietrich and Margo Lion  - the play Die Gefangene by the French playwright Édouard Bourdet, staged by Max Reinhardt in 1926 alluded to. Marcellus Schiffer repeatedly brought certain eccentric types of women onto the stage in his pieces, for whom he wrote tailor-made songs. It is the fashion-conscious, androgynous modern woman of the twenties, who doesn't have to work, is very slim or even spindly, just like Margo Lion, and loves nothing more than strolling and consuming in the department store. Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt writes about this: “You have got used to looking at body and soul naked. In a socially out of joint world there is no room for moral reflection. In It is in the air , Margo Lion suddenly appeared on the stage, giraffe-like supple, in movement and voice the counter-image of female charm. She sang a scene of brutal urgency. ”In the performance, Stuckenschmidt was strongly impressed by“ a moment, so clearly, so vulgar, so deliberately sexual. ”

As permissive as the texts were, in the opinion of the critic, who signed with the abbreviation F. E. in the left-liberal Berliner Tageblatt , the political was neglected. After there was no longer any censorship, he found the play, which began a week before the Reichstag election, “stale and flat”. Up until then, two issues of the revue had something of a political content. The picture Political Department with Otto Wallburg and the porter's song in the picture The revolving door with Willy Prager . Apparently the piece was performed in a different version in the premiere than in the performances afterwards. Probably as a reaction to this criticism in the Berliner Tageblatt, Schiffer changed the text in the number The sharp song and added a satirical allusion to this newspaper: "Every paper / in the newspaper town / writes in the Zeitkritik / it screams for it / the newspaper Time afterwards / her a political song! ”And continues:“ Can there be anything hotter? / There you go flat / the daily newspaper / I gave it to him too. ”Schiffer's various departments of the Department store integrated as consumable and exchangeable goods: "Legal department, left department, / Democrat size 42 / whipped cream, sour herrings, cheese, / empires, ministers, republics, / citizens, governments! / And if you don't buy tomorrow, you buy today!"

Schiffer and Spoliansky met the zeitgeist of the time with their piece. With their allusions to the new way of life , the authors and actors became known worldwide. In addition, it is, for example, by Viktor Rotthaler in his book Marcellus Schiffer: Tonight or never. Diaries, short stories, poems, drawings called the first attempt at a “German-language musical”.

“With Spoliansky, Schiffer developed new, contemporary genres and forms of music theater that skilfully moved between cabaret and revue, literature and hits, high and popular culture. For Rotthaler, Spoliansky's and Schiffer's department store review 'It's in the air' - and not 'The Threepenny Opera' - marks the 'first attempt at a German musical'. "

The text of the title song is based on the exhibition Neue Sachlichkeit , which opened on June 14, 1925 in the Kunsthalle Mannheim .

Record label It's in the air

...
There is an objectivity in the air,
there is a stinginess in the air,
it is in the air, there is in the air, in the air!
There's something idiotic
in the air,
there's something hypnotic in the air, it's in the air, it's in the air, in the air,
and it can't get out of the air anymore!
...
away with flourishes, stucco and damage!
The house facades are built smooth.
The next step is to build houses
completely without facades.
We are tired of clutter!
Away the furniture from the apartment!
Away with what doesn't belong!
I claim without sparing:
Everyone who is there disturbs!
…
- Excerpt from the title song It's in the air

The play takes place in Berlin in the 1920s and the scenes take place in a large modern department store. It offers goods that range from simple household necessities to exotic luxuries. Even if a baby is forgotten in the warehouse, it can survive here without leaving the house. Almost everything can be exchanged.

With the play It is in the air , the society of that time is depicted satirically and with slight mockery in 24 short revue-like scenes as little stories about the shopping experience of department stores.

Stage design

people

  • The twins Peter and Petersilie were accidentally left there by their parents during a hectic shopping day and are now part of the "inventory" of the department store.
  • Two friends meet for a shopping spree to change their clothes and discover that they are in love with the same man. The then still unknown singer Marlene Dietrich sang the duet Wenn diebest Freund with her best friend with Margo Lion.
  • A kleptomaniac couple tries again and again to bring the stolen goods past the department store detective.
  • A doorman, an elevator operator, the director of the department store, a secret police officer or a detective as well as department store customers and salespeople.

The title song It is in the air was sung by Margo Lion and Oskar Karlweis . In addition to Marlene Dietrich, Margo Lion and Oskar Karlweis, Otto Wallburg , Willy Prager, Ida Wüst , Käte Lenz, Hubert von Meyerinck and Louis Douglas belonged to the ensemble.

Costumes and stage design
The costumes for the world premiere were made by Dodo Wolf , the decorations for the stage design by Walter Trier and Emil Pirchan.

Orchestral line-up

Image sequence in 2 parts

  • Elevator - Hubert von Meyerinck
  • Leftovers - Marlene Dietrich, Otto Wallburg, Ida Wüst and 8 girls
  • Lost and found office - Leni Sponholz, Charlotte Ziegler
  • Delivered dogs - Margo Lion
  • Toys - Hubert von Meyerinck, Charlotte Ziegler, Oskar Karlweis and Käte Lenz
  • Joke articles - Otto Wallburg, Leni Sponholz, Willy Prager, Ida Wüst, Hubert von Meyerinck, Oskar Karlweis, Käte Lenz, Marlene Dietrich and 8 girls
  • Perfume warehouse - Margo Lion
  • Kleptomaniac - Hubert von Meyerinck and Marlene Dietrich
  • Political Department - Otto Wallburg
  • Confirmation camp - Oskar Karlweis and Käte Lenz
  • White Week - Margo Lion, Leni Sponholz, Hubert von Meyerinck, Oskar Karlweis, Käte Lenz, Charlotte Ziegler and 8 girls
  • The revolving door - Willy Prager
  • It's in the air - Margo Lion and Oskar Karlweis with the whole ensemble
  • Pause The Four Admirals - (there with the wrong spelling The For Admirals)
  • Nippes - Otto Wallburg, Marlene Dietrich, Hubert von Meyerinck, Margo Lion and Käte Lenz
  • Somehow - Willy Prager
  • Music - Otto Wallburg, Ida Wüst, Oskar Karlweis, Käte Lenz and Marlene Dietrich
  • Box office - Willy Prager and Charlotte Ziegler
  • Wedding night - Otto Wallburg, Ida Wüst and Käte Lenz
  • Sisters - Margo Lion, Marlene Dietrich and Oskar Karlweis
  • Passport photo - Margo Lion and Hubert von Meyerinck
  • Information - Otto Wallburg and Willy Prager
  • Sports department - Margo Lion, Marlene Dietrich, Käte Lenz, Otto Wallburg, Hubert von Meyerinck and Oskar Karlweis
  • Department Store Boy - Louis Douglas
  • Exchange office - whole ensemble

Music numbers and songs

In the original version of the revue, these musical numbers were included (with performers):

  • Prelude (4/4 time ; basic key C major; Spoliansky specifies a "brisk marching tempo")
  • Elevator ( chromatically ascending introduction; 4/4 time; basic key C major; tempo indication “Up!” And later a little faster “Down!”) - Hubert von Meyerinck
  • Set back (= “reduced”, meaning a price reduction on inferior goods; basic key B major; 4/4 time; with saxophone solo; tempo “a little slow”) - Marlene Dietrich, Otto Wallburg, Ida Wüst
  • I'll give it to you (A flat major; 4/4 time; clarinet solo) - Leni Sponholz, Charlotte Ziegler
  • The Poodle (lost property office; song of the sad lost poodle; basic key D minor, 4/4 time) - Margo Lion
  • Peter / Petersilie (duet; 4/4 time; C major; trumpet solo)
  • Juchhu, then it's carnival (joke article; with syncopated jazz elements and short piano improvisation )
  • L'heure bleue ("Parfumelager"; Tango ; basic key of G minor; alternative variation for orchestra in C major) - Margo Lion
  • Kleptomaniac (tempo “fast”; 4/4 time) - Hubert von Meyerinck, Marlene Dietrich
  • A sharp song ("march tempo"; 2/4 time) - Otto Wallburg (secret police, meaning the shop detective wearing an armband with the inscription "secret police")
  • Holidays have to be uncomfortable (duet; "a bit fast"; 4/4 time; basic key F major) Oskar Karlweis, Käte Lenz
  • The bride (basic key of C major; 4/4 time; “marching tempo”; alternative arrangement: tempo “quasi Gavotte ”, here to be understood more as a polka ) - Margo Lion
  • I know that is not the case (The porter; the song is full of political allusions, so the political theater is mentioned and commented on by Erwin Piscator , as well as Gustav Stresemann , Karl Marx and Aristide Briand ; Tempo "not fast Slowfox "; c- minor; variation with piano and trumpet) - Willy Prager
  • It's in the air (the title of the revue, with many allusions to the zeitgeist of the time; dramatic introduction in C minor; high speaking speed, as in a patter song ) - Margo Lion and Oskar Karlweis
  • Nippes (3/4 time; basic key C major; Spoliansky provides for a glockenspiel and the scene should end with a gong )
  • Somehow - I'm a satisfied man (not fast; 4/4 time; C minor in the stanzas, C major in the chorus ) - Willy Prager
  • The musical department also includes music (here an electric piano is imitated and a singing saw appears; numerous allusions to contemporary hits such as What does the Maier do in the Himalaya? Take these satirizing on the grain) - Marlene Dietrich, Otto Wallburg, Ida Wüst, Oskar Karlweis , Kate Lenz
  • The whispering baritone (also an allusion to the successful song Whispering ; 4/4 time; E flat major; alternative version as “slow blues ” in B flat major) - Oskar Karlweis
  • Overture to Fradelin also wedding night (with a bed scene in the bedroom, which is partly commented on by a maid stepping out of the role for the audience) - Otto Wallburg, Ida Wüst and Käte Lenz
  • My best friend - When the best friend (a lesbian couple goes shopping; Foxtrot with spoken texts also "improvised, depending on the singing position"; D minor) - Marlene Dietrich, Margo Lion, Oskar Karlweis
  • The line of fashion (the mannequin as an incomplete woman; "a little slow"; C major; 4/4 time; variation at a fast tempo)
  • Kindly please (photographer, you should always smile, show your teeth; tempo "swinging"; 12/8 time; F major)
  • We don't want to know exactly (information; F major; 4/4 time)
  • Ping-pong (sports section, duet; foxtrot, E flat major)
  • Stage number - up and down (E flat major, 4/4 time; the trombone emerges as a soloist)
  • Finale (exchange office; 4/4 time; C major; trumpet and clarinet play partly solo; the text takes up all the stories from the individual pictures and ends them. At the end there is a repetition by the photographer with the lyrics to the song : “Always smile ") - with all actors

Some music numbers were arranged for piano and voice by Otto Lindemann and later marketed separately as hits. Paul Godwin and his "Jazz Symphoniker" recorded the title song Es ist in der Luft shortly after the premiere for a record in an instrumental version as a danceable foxtrot . The original music by Mischa Spoliansky for numbers 9 and 12 (“political department” and “information”) has not survived, but there is a piano reduction .

Cross references in the piece

The revue contains some allusions to other works:

  • With the song My best friend, for example, on the play Die Gefangene, based on the story La prisonnière by Edouard Bourdet, which is about a relationship between two women and was also shown in the 1926 comedy on Kurfürstendamm.
  • The whispering baritone based on the baritone singer Jacob J. Schmidt, known as Whispering Jack Smith (1896–1950)
  • The Overture to Fradelin is related to Marcel Fradelin , a play in 4 acts by Henri Duvernois and André Birabeau, which was successfully performed in the Komödie am Kurfürstendamm in the 1928 winter season.

Reception and expenses (selection)

The play in which Marlene Dietrich played is the subject of several novels that describe her life.

Sheet music and texts for some of the songs were published in two different editions by Drei Masken Verlag after the premiere in June 1928.

  • Sheet music for It is in the air and L'heure bleue arranged for salon orchestra by Franz Grothe
  • Notes and lyrics for the chansons It's in the air , L'heure bleue , ping pong , Wenn the best friend ... and I know that's not so for vocals and piano.

There were other publications in some daily newspapers, including the sheet music for the song Der Pudel in the Berliner Tageblatt . In his book , it is in the air - Cabaret in the Third Reich writes Reinhard hip about the piece, it was a "fragrant, airy meringues" and the question is whether Schiffer and Spoliansky one week before the general election on May 20, 1928 , at who suffered losses for the bourgeois parties, knew what was “really in the air”?

Sound carrier

Label of the shellac record Potpourri from the revue "It's in the air"
  • Potpourri from the revue “It's in the air” Electrola GmbH, Nowawes / Berlin (long-playing record, two parts) OCLC 725725136
  • Rare historical recordings, 1920–1966: Berlin-London OCLC 829901750 (2 CDs, contains the songs: It's in the air , L'heure bleu , I know it's not like that .)

Performances (selection)

The play has been performed in many theaters and productions.

  • May 15, 1928 First performance in the Komödie am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin
  • September 7, 1977 in the Renaissance Theater Berlin on the occasion of the 27th Berliner Festwochen
  • August 27, 1994 at the Dresden State Theater
  • January 29, 1995 Vogtlandtheater, Plauen
  • July 12, 2014 Wilhelma-Theater Stuttgart.
  • October 23, 2015 Premiere at the Lichtenberg Children's Opera House / Junge Staatsoper in Berlin
  • April 12, 2018 Premiere, Theater Erfurt in the Erfurt department store Breuninger
  • February 15, 2019 Premiere, music theater group "nunodernie" in the Brunsviga in Braunschweig

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carolin Stahrenberg: "In the semi-darkness of the in-between": Mischa Spoliankys ways and stations. In: Hot spots from café to cabaret. Musical action spaces in Mischa Spoliansky's Berlin 1918–1933. Waxmann Verlag, Münster 2012, ISBN 978-3-8309-2520-0 , p. 99 ff. (Reading sample: books.google.de ).
  2. ↑ F. E .: "It's in the air." Review in the "Comedy". In: Berliner Tageblatt. 57th year, no.230 from May 16, 1928, p. 3 ( staatsbibliothek-berlin.de ).
  3. ↑ Carolin Stahrenberg: "In the semi-darkness of the in-between": Mischa Spoliankys ways and stations. In: Hot spots from café to cabaret. Musical action spaces in Mischa Spoliansky's Berlin 1918–1933. Waxmann Verlag, Münster 2012, ISBN 978-3-8309-2520-0 , p. 110 ff. (Reading sample: books.google.de ).
  4. ↑ Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt: So is sung today, chorales from the mud, a statement. In: Uhu: The monthly magazine . No. 9, Ullstein Verlag, Berlin June 1930, pp. 45 ff.
  5. ^ Text book of the revue, Dreiklang-Drei Masken-Verlag, Munich, p. 9 f. and p. 25.
  6. ↑ Viktor Rotthaler: Tonight or never. Diaries, stories, poems, drawings . Weidle, Bonn 2003, ISBN 3-931135-69-1 , p. 33 .
  7. ↑ Claus Lochbihler: Chatting through the night with a shudder . In: Neue Musikzeitung . Edition: 5/03, 2003 ( nmz.de ).
  8. ↑ Carmela Thiele: There was something in the air. Deutschlandfunk Kultur, June 14, 2005, accessed on January 6, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht: Terminology of Music in the 20th Century . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-515-06659-4 , pp. 319 ( books.google.de ).
  10. ↑ It's in the air by Mischa Spoliansky and Marcellus Schiffer. felix-bloch-orben.de, accessed on January 6, 2019 .
  11. ^ Leo Baeck Institute Archives (Ed.): Theater, Berlin Collection 1913–1933 . 1933, p. 180 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  12. ↑ Program sheet with incorrect spelling. (JPG) Gramophone and Shellac Records Portal 78rpm, accessed January 14, 2019 .
  13. ↑ All musical information comes from: It's in the air. Text by Marzellus Schiffer. Music by Mischa Spoliansky. Piano reduction by Steven Edis, reprint of the edition from Verlag Bloch, Berlin 1928.
  14. ↑ It's in the air - Paul Godwin (Revue Foxtrot 1928).
  15. ↑ Spoliansky, Schiffer: It's in the air. Original text and scenes from the Berlin premiere in 1928. Dreiklang-Dreimasken, Munich approx. 1990, pp. 8 ff., 36 f., 40 ff.
  16. ↑ The Legend Of Whispering Jack Smith. geezermusicclub.com, 2015, accessed January 9, 2019 .
  17. ^ Hans Manfred Bock: French culture in Berlin during the Weimar Republic. Cultural exchange and diplomatic relations . Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-8233-6181-3 , p. 255 ( books.google.de ).
  18. ^ Sandra Danielczyk: Diseusen in the Weimar Republic: Image constructions in cabaret using the example of Margo Lion and Blandine Ebinger . transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2017, ISBN 978-3-8394-3835-0 , p. 179 ff . ( books.google.de ).
  19. ↑ It's in the air. Music Museum, accessed January 7, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Reinhard Hippen: It's in the air. Cabaret in the Third Reich. Book series cabaret history (s). Volume 13. Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-85842-204-5 , pp. 10 and 13.
  21. ↑ It's in the air ... Renaissance Theater, 2017, accessed June 8, 2020 .
  22. ↑ Alexander Walther: Stuttgart / Wilhelma-Theater: Guest performance at the 26th Isny ​​Opera Festival “It's in the air” (Mischa Spoliansky) and “The Tsar lets himself be photographed” (Kurt Weill). onlinemerker.com, 2014, accessed January 8, 2019 .
  23. ↑ It's in the Air (2015). Lichtenberg Children's Opera House in Berlin, accessed on January 7, 2019 .
  24. ↑ Real life rages between clothes rails and shelves. In: Thuringian General. April 10, 2018, accessed January 7, 2019 .
  25. ↑ The new musical is coming - It's in the air. IGS Franzsches Feld , December 22, 2018, accessed on January 7, 2019 .