Indigo and the 40 thieves
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| Title: | Indigo and the 40 thieves |
| Shape: | operetta |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Johann Strauss (son) |
| Libretto : | Richard Genée |
| Premiere: | February 10, 1871 |
| Place of premiere: | Vienna |
| Place and time of the action: | On the island of Makassar in the 19th century |
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Indigo and the 40 Robbers is the first performed operetta by Johann Strauss (son) . The libretto was written by several editors, including Richard Genée , but was revised after the premiere. The text is based on the fairy tale of Ali Baba and the forty robbers from the Arabian Nights . The work had its world premiere on February 10, 1871 in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.
action
The original operetta, premiered in 1871, is set on an island called Makassar in the 19th century.
The girl Fantasca and her companion Janio from Vienna are shipwrecked. They are rescued and then come as slaves to King Indigo of Makassar. He falls in love with Fantasca and takes her into his harem, where he keeps her prisoner. However, he has no chance with her. In order to still be able to win her over, he takes advice from Janio, whom he also appoints as his advisor. This in turn arouses the jealousy of the influential High Priest Romadour, who is also from Vienna. He sees Janio's appointment as a threat to his own position at the king's court.
With the help of Ali Baba, Fantasca and other ladies from the harem plan their escape. Romadour, however, quickly gets behind this plan. He sees a chance for himself to get rid of the hated Janio because he rightly assumes that he will join Fantasca's escape. Therefore, he does not reveal the escape plan, which then succeeds promptly. The refugees hide in a forest where they dress up as robbers. The approaching troops of the king, who were supposed to pursue the refugees, do not recognize the disguises and assume that they are actually facing dangerous robbers. They run away out of fear.
Actually, the refugees would now be saved. However, Ali Baba and Janio now decide for themselves to capitalize on the story and take an easier further escape route. They stun Fantasca and the other ladies and bring them back to the royal court, still disguised as robbers. There the king, who once offered a reward for capturing the robbers that actually existed, must stand by his word and release Fantasca, Janio and Ali Baba as a reward into freedom.
Reception and music
The series of 16 musical stage works by Johann Strauss (15 operettas and one opera) begins with the operetta Indigo and the 40 Robbers . As you can read in the main article about the composer in the section Operettas , other composers had a sometimes considerable co-creative share in these works. In this context Richard Genée should be mentioned who wrote more than just textbooks for Strauss. He was also involved in the musical design of many Strauss operettas. It cannot be ruled out that he also made a musical contribution to this work. Regardless of this question, the work met with little success in its original and later versions. There were several reasons. The textbook, even in the revised versions, was simply bad, inconclusive and for the audience the storyline was not rationally comprehensible. The assessment of the music is of course a matter of taste. Objectively speaking, Indigo and the 40 Robbers does not only fall sharply off against works like Die Fledermaus . It also clearly lags behind some other Strauss works.
The libretto has been revised several times (unsuccessfully) over the years. A new version called La Reine Indigo ("Queen Indigo") soon appeared in Paris . In 1877 the work came back to Vienna under the new title, where it was performed again for a short time at the Theater an der Wien.
The most famous text version of the work was created by Ernst Reiterer in 1906. While retaining the music, the work was now entitled A Thousand and One Nights . Even this version of the text is silly even for operettas and borders on pure nonsense. In this version, the work is occasionally but rarely performed at various theaters and at various festivals (including the Bregenz Lake Festival). The operetta Thousand and One Nights was launched in 2009 by the Line Music label . In the double CD, which is based on a record recording from 1952, the choir and orchestra of the Northwest German Broadcasting Corporation sing and play under the direction of Wilhelm Stephan . As singers, u. a. Rita Streich , Helmut Krebs and Anneliese Rothenberger with.
The most famous music numbers are:
- Yes that's how you sing in the city where I was born
- How beautiful was that night (dream song)
- Slumber song
- Indigo March
- A merry advice to be, by the grace of the king, oh that is very bland
- It lives with us in the country
- A beggar went out to the forest
Musical re-use
Independent works by the composer were created based on motifs from this operetta, which are marked in his catalog raisonné with the opus numbers 343 to 351. These are the following works:
- Shawl-Polka , Polka francaise, Opus 343
- Indigo Quadrille , Opus 344
- At large , Polka francaise, Opus 345
- A thousand and one nights , Waltz, Opus 346
- From the Heimath , Polka Mazurka, Opus 347
- In the storm step , Schnell Polka, Opus 348
- Indigo March , Opus 349
- Lust'ger Rath , Polka francaise, Opus 350
- The Bajadere , Polka Fast, Opus 351
literature
- Norbert Linke : Indigo and the 40 robbers - the operetta as a secret code. Löcker, Vienna 2016. ISBN 978-3-85409-824-9 .
Web links
- Indigo and the Forty Raiders : Sheet Music and Audio Files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Indigo and the 40 thieves in the Operetta Lexicon