Women like that
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Women like that ...! |
| Shape: | operetta |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Walter Kollo |
| Libretto : | Franz Arnold, Ernst Bach and Rideamus |
| Literary source: | "The chaste bon vivant", Schwank von Arnold and Bach |
| Premiere: | June 4, 1931 |
| Place of premiere: | Berlin |
| Place and time of the action: | Larger German provincial town around 1930 |
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Women like that ...! is a fluctuating operetta in three acts by Walter Kollo . The libretto comes from the team of authors Franz Arnold and Ernst Bach . Rideamus aka Fritz Oliven contributed the lyrics. It premiered on June 4, 1931 at the Komische Oper Berlin . The work is based on the Schwank “The chaste bon vivant”, written by the librettists Arnold and Bach themselves, which had its world premiere on December 25, 1921.
orchestra
A flute, an oboe, two clarinets, a bassoon, two horns, two trumpets, a trombone, small percussion and strings. The work can also be performed well with two wings.
action
The operetta is set in a major German provincial town at the time of its premiere, i.e. at the beginning of the 1930s. All three acts have only one set: the garden parlor of a villa.
Factory owner Julius Seibold is determined to marry off his daughter Ilse to his partner Max Stieglitz. Ilse has spent the past few years in the metropolis of Berlin and is expected back today. Max Stieglitz was thoroughly prepared by Seibold to propose marriage to the girl today.
A brisk convertible stops in front of Seibold's villa. Ilse Seibold and her companion Heinz Fellner, a very elegant young man of the world, climb out of him. The two met in Berlin and became friends. Use would not be averse to entering into a closer relationship with him, but she wants to wait a little longer. When she is introduced to his partner Max Stieglitz by her father, she can no longer hold back the laugh, so much amuses her old-fashioned outfit and his stilted demeanor. Of course, Ilse's father does not hide the fact that the two can never become lovers, unless ...
Julius Seibold is a serious painter himself and of course knows what women appreciate in men: A man should have at least a small amorous past in his biography, then he will be respected much better by a woman. So Max Stieglitz will simply miss one. Seibold owns a photograph of the famous film diva Luise Lamprecht with an autograph. Then he wrote a hot dedication for her lover Max Stieglitz. When the picture made the rounds in the family circle, people kept saying what kind of bon vivant Max Stieglitz was. Nobody would have thought he could do that. Ilse suddenly sees her father's partner in a completely different light. She quickly forgot her friend Heinz Fellner and actually got engaged to Max Stieglitz.
Heinz Fellner was temporarily assigned a room in Seibold's villa. But now the maid calls him to the garden parlor, where visitors have arrived for him. His friend Walter Riemann is passing through with his fiancée and has made a short stop in the city because he heard that Heinz was staying here. The fiancée is none other than that film diva Luise Lamprecht of all people. When Walter Riemann discovers that fateful photo on the cabinet, he is seized with jealousy. He makes serious reproaches to his bride. But she sees through the fraud and decides to give both her fiancé and the bold Max a lesson. As it should be for a sway, this creates a number of errors and confusions. In the end, however, all confusions dissolve in favor. Ilse discovers that Max is not as much of a fool as she initially thought. She sees the good core in him and is ready to become his wife. So her father's wish will come true after all.
music
The music is consistently hit, the songs are written in a medium vocal range and therefore easy to sing, so that no trained singers are actually required. The operetta is therefore often performed by singing actors. It doesn't require a choir or a ballet . Songs:
- Papa, Mama, you don't know the rhythm (introduction)
- Don't ask your heart (trio)
- I lay my heart at your feet (duet)
- If only that doesn't go wrong
- Mr. Stieglietz (finale of the first act)
- A kiss from you (sextet)
- It works, it works, it works again (duet)
- Oh heaven, it's all over now (ensemble)
- Women like that (duet in the finale of the second act)
- If only that doesn't go wrong (recapitulation)
- To me, my child, you don't fit (duet)
- A kiss from you (recapitulation, finale)
literature
- Hellmuth Steger, Karl Howe: Operettenführer. From Offenbach to musicals. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg 1958.