Free spirits

Freigeister is an operetta in 2 acts by Franz von Suppè . The libretto is by Karl Costa .

The operetta is set in the artisan milieu of the 16th century and deals, among other things, with a pair of lovers who initially cannot get together because of a promise made by the girl's father. It is noteworthy that the librettist parodies the excesses of the political urge for freedom of his time by inserting a political muddle into the plot that calls for a union of free spirits for a “general communism”.

Today only the overture is known of the music. This is largely identical to the overture to the operetta Das Modell , which was completed posthumously by another hand in 1895 after Suppé's death. Further comparisons with the Galathée adaptation of 1967 by Paul Angerer , who states that he took over the two finales from the "Model" and that are in turn identical to the Freigeister overture, suggest that essential parts of this legacy work were taken from the free spirits.

literature

• Hans-Dieter Roser : Franz von Suppé: Work and Life. Edition Steinbauer, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-902494-22-1 .