Friederike (operetta)
| Work data | |
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| Title: | Friederike |
| Shape: | Singspiel |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Franz Lehár |
| Libretto : | Ludwig Herzer and Fritz Löhner-Beda |
| Premiere: | October 4, 1928 |
| Place of premiere: | Berlin |
| Place and time of the action: | Sesenheim and Strasbourg (Alsace) 1771 and 1779 |
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Friederike is an operetta by Franz Lehár . The composer himself described his work as a Singspiel . The libretto was written by Ludwig Herzer and Fritz Löhner-Beda . It premiered on October 4, 1928 at the Metropol Theater in Berlin. Richard Tauber played the young Goethe ; Käthe Dorsch interpreted the title role.
orchestra
Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, a harp, percussion and strings
action
The operetta takes place in the village of Sesenheim and in the city of Strasbourg in Alsace , the first two acts in 1771 and the third act in 1779.
first act
Image: In front of the rectory in Sesenheim, Pentecost Sunday 1771 The young poet Goethe, who is currently studying law in Strasbourg, raves about Friederike, a daughter of Jakob Brion, the pastor of Sesenheim. He has announced that he is visiting for the day. Friederike's mother hopes for her daughter's future together with Goethe. At the same time, Weyland and Lenz, two fellow students of Goethe, are interested in Salomea, Friederike's sister. At the following meeting between Friederike and Goethe, the two get closer for the first time and kiss. Until then, Goethe hadn't dared to do this because he feared a curse that a former lover in Strasbourg had put on him or his future girlfriend. After he has now overcome his superstition and has taken Friederike in his arms, a short time of carefree love begins for the couple.
Second act
Image: Bourgeois salon in Strasbourg, autumn 1771 Goethe is a guest in the salon of Madame Schöll, the aunt of Friederike and Salomea, who are also present. Salomea has now decided on Weyland and is engaged to this. Goethe plans to do the same with Friederike that day. He's already got rings and everything seems to be going according to plan. Weyland, however, warns his friend Goethe against this step because he does not believe in his long-term loyalty to Friederike. Goethe ignores the warning. But then a messenger arrives from distant Weimar who offers Goethe a job at the court there. Goethe initially refuses because he does not want to leave Alsace and Friederike. In addition, the Weimar offer contained the condition that he could only take up the position unmarried. Weyland now intervenes and explains the situation to Friederike. She realizes that she would stand in the way of Goethe's further career. With a heavy heart she is now playing a theater for Goethe in which she downplays her love for him and flirts with other men. With that she reaches her goal. Angry Goethe leaves the house without a farewell greeting and goes to Weimar. But Friederike is sad and sad.
Third act
Image: In front of the rectory in Sesenheim, 1779
Eight years later, Goethe made another stop in Sesenheim with his sovereign, Grand Duke Karl August. He wants to show his prince the scene of his great love and the place where the heather was composed. Of course he also visits the parsonage and meets Friederike again, who still has not overcome the pain of separation from back then. Goethe knows what sacrifice Friederike made for him. But there won't be a happy ending for both of them. The prince urges them to continue their journey and Goethe and Friederike say goodbye forever. Friederike consoles herself with the fact that Goethe now belongs to the whole world and thus to a certain extent also to her.
Music numbers
The following music numbers are taken from the booklet of the CD release mentioned below on the CPO label from 2009.
- God gave a nice day (song: Friederike)
- Small flowers, small leaves (song: Friederike)
- Get along with girls (choir and Salomea)
- The girls are there to kiss (Chorus and Salomea)
- O how beautiful, how beautiful (waltz song: Goethe)
- I look at your hands (duet: Goethe - Friederike)
- Lammchen good (song of Lenz)
- A boy saw a rose (song: Goethe) Heidenröslein
- Alsatian child (country: Salomea - Lenz)
- All my feelings, all my longing (duet: Friederike - Goethe)
- O girl my girl (song: Goethe)
- Why did you kiss me awake (song: Friederike)
- Today we dance the Palatine Dance (duet: Salomea - Lenz)
- A heart as pure as gold (Lied: Goethe)
In addition there are the final I, final II and the final III
reception
Friederike belongs to the composer's last creative phase. This phase began in 1925 with Paganini . Significant is the lack of happy endings in the actions and a more dramatic music than in Lehár's earlier years. Another common feature of the last Lehár operettas is the collaboration between the composer and the then already famous opera tenor Richard Tauber. In Friederike , too, there are songs that were specially tailored to him. The operetta had good reviews and was initially very well received by the audience. Some critics, however, referred to the problem of whether one could do it to a genius like Goethe to be immortalized in an unworthy operetta. In this connection there was talk of the messing up of Goethe verses.
Regardless of this, the operetta got off to a good start in the theaters. The National Socialists, who opposed this work from the start, then banned further performances of Friederike after they came to power in Germany and from 1938 also in Austria , which was also justified by the fact that the lyricists were Jews. Lehár tried in vain to get Goebbels to lift the ban. The operetta was still performed in various theaters, for example on February 4, 1942 at the then Reichsgautheater Innsbruck .
After the war, the work was initially played more often. Then it was more and more forgotten. Today the work is rarely performed as a complete work. However, individual songs are still part of concert programs.
Sound carrier
- Cross-section at EMI on CD (1957): Operetta melodies ( The Land of Smiles , Der Zarewitsch , Friederike ) with Erika Köth , Helga Hildebrand (soprano), Rudolf Schock , Manfred Schmidt (tenor), the Berliner Symphoniker , conductor: Wilhelm Schüchter .
- Complete recording by EMI on double CD (1980) with Adolf Dallapozza (Goethe), Christian Wolff (Weyland), Erika Rüggeberg (Liselotte), Gabriele Fuchs (Salomea), Gudrun Greindl-Rosner (Dorothée), Gustl Datz (Brion), Harry Kalenberg (Grand Duke), Helen Donath (Friederike), Helene Grabenhorst (Hortense), Jürgen von Pawels (Knebel), Maria Stadler (Magdalena), Martin Finke (Lenz), the Bavarian Radio Choir and the Munich Radio Orchestra , conductor: Heinz Wallberg .
- Complete recording (German; with French intertexts) at Universal Music France (2011) with Nicola Beller Carbone (Friederike), Marius Brenciu (Goethe), Yves Saelens (Lenz), Mirjam Neururer (Salomea) and others. a., the Orchester de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, conductor: Lawrence Foster .
- Complete recording on the CPO label (2009) with Kristiane Kaiser (Friederike), Sylvia Schwartz (Salomea), Klaus Florian Vogt (Goethe) and Daniel Behle (Lenz), the Bavarian Radio Choir under the direction of Peter Dijkstra and the Münchner Rundfunkorchester , conductor : Ulf Schirmer , who was also the general manager.
literature
- Norbert Linke : Franz Lehár. Rororo-Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2001, p. 92ff
- Reclams Opern und Operettenführer , 15th ed. 1978, Operetta section, pages 157–159