Eva (operetta)
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Eve |
| Shape: | operetta |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Franz Lehár |
| Libretto : | Alfred Maria Willner and Robert Bodanzky |
| Premiere: | November 24, 1911 |
| Place of premiere: | Vienna |
| Place and time of the action: | Brussels and Paris at the time of the premiere |
| people | |
|
|
Eva is an operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár . The libretto was written by Alfred Maria Willner and Robert Bodanzky . It premiered on November 24, 1911 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.
action
- Act 1 - Festively decorated entrance area of a factory hall
The factory workers celebrate Eva's birthday. As a little orphan, she was handed over to the works foreman Larousse, who made sure that Eva was raised by the entire workforce. Today, during her birthday party, Octave Flaubert takes over the management of the factory as the new director.
Since Eva wants a better, more beautiful life and Flaubert turns out to be a bon vivant, the two get closer. The accountant Prunelles, with whom Flaubert soon gets on very well, also works in the factory. Prunelles envies his director and also knows Paris, because he already had his adventures there.
Pepita Panquerette, called "Pipsi", lives there in Paris. Every vacation Pipsi fishes for a wealthy galan who is willing to pay for all kinds of amusement. And years ago Prunelles was also one of Pipsi's conquests. Dagobert Millefleurs and his girlfriend Pepita come to the Flaubert factory to hide from their jealous husband. In truth, it doesn't even exist, as Pepita only invented it to go on trips with Millefleurs. When Prunelles sees Pepita, he recognizes Pipsi in her (and with it also the dizziness), but he is silent, because he does not want to expose himself to the ridicule of his colleagues because he has been betrayed.
- 2. Act - Salon in the manufacturer's villa
Flaubert gives a lavish party for his friend Millefleurs and officially introduces Eva to society. Eva believes in Flaubert's love because he has given her expensive clothes and jewelry. In the meantime, Larousse misses his ward Eva and wants to bring her back home. But since Flaubert won't let her go, Larousse brings the entire workforce together. But before the situation escalates, Flaubert declares his intention to marry Eva. Since the workers do not want to oppose this marriage, they withdraw.
By chance Eva then overhears a conversation between Flaubert and Millefleurs. Flaubert reports to his friend that he lied to the workers because he never had any intention of marrying Eva. Now Eva can no longer stay in the villa and does not go back to the workers (or even to Larousse) because she is too ashamed. She throws the gift jewelry at Flaubert's feet and runs away.
- Act 3 - Tenement on the Bois du Boulogne, Paris
Eva now lives with Pepita Paquerette. the two get on very well, although Eva can neither emulate nor approve of Pipsi's way of life. Shaken by Eva's flight, Flaubert changed his way of life and looked for Eva all over Paris. When he finally finds her, he explains his honest intentions and asks for her hand. Millefleurs also draws a line under his previous life. He accepts a job and can now marry his Pipsi.
orchestra
Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, a harp, percussion and strings
Sound carrier
Complete recording on the CPO label from 2005 (two CDs) with Reinhard Alessandri, Thomas Zisterer, Thomas Malik, Zora Antonic, Gerhard Balluch , Morenike Fadayomi, the choir of the Lehár Festival Bad Ischl and the Franz Lehár Orchestra under the direction of Wolfgang Bozic
Music numbers
The following music numbers of the operetta are taken from the booklet of the CD recording mentioned above:
- Introduction: Heißa, juchheia
- Melodrama and song: In the secret twilight of the silver traffic light
- Duet: Determination, Fatum, that's all
- Appearance and duet: Don't worry, nothing can happen here
- Duet: At noon ... the ghosts of Montmatre
- Finale I.
- Introduction to the 2nd act: choir, song and dance: Save me Dagobert
- March: Did you represent the first pair of boots?
- Trio: On the right the male of my choice
- Melodrama and Duet: Don't Be Scared
- Song: Octave admit it to you
- Duet: move in with your father
- Melodrama and Duet: Eva You look lovely
- Finale II
- Duet: When the Parisian goes for a walk
- Song: Take care, take care my beautiful child
- Exit: Just tell me, Pipsi
- Finale III: A girl like you, so nice and so fine
reception
This operetta was mistakenly viewed as a political work and was therefore controversial at the time it was written. One saw socialist propaganda in the action (workers' uprising to protect Eva from the factory owner). But nowhere in the text book is politics propagated and the authors and Lehár firmly rejected the charge, and the work was initially a great success. At the premiere, the main roles were sung by Louis Treumann and Mizzi Günther , who had already sung the main roles at the premiere of The Merry Widow . The success spread to Italy and from there to the then Italian colony of Libya . In 1912 the opera house in Tripoli opened with this very operetta. Also for the Theater an der Wien was Eva 's largest operetta success between the Count of Luxembourg (1909) and Leo Fall's The Rose of Stamboul (1916). In the years and decades that followed, the operetta's popularity gradually declined. One of the reasons for this was that after 1916 and then in the 1920s, many successful operettas, also by Lehár, were written, which Eva gradually ousted from the repertoire. Today the operetta is rarely played as a complete work. However, individual music numbers from this operetta are repeatedly played at concerts.
See also
literature
- Leo Melitz: Guide through the operettas . Globus-Verlag, Berlin 1917, pp. 41–43.
- Norbert Linke : Franz Lehár . Rororo Verlag, pp. 61-63
Web links
- Brief description of the plot on musikundbuehene.de (search for tracks for “Eva”), accessed on December 7, 2014.