My friend Bunbury
| Musical dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | My friend Bunbury |
| Music: | Gerd Natschinski |
| Book: | Helmut Bez and Jürgen Degenhardt |
| Lyrics: | Jürgen Degenhardt |
| Literary source: | The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde |
| Premiere: | 1964 |
| Place of premiere: | Metropol Theater Berlin |
| Playing time: | approx. 2.5 hours |
| Place and time of the action: | London around 1925 |
| Roles / people | |
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My friend Bunbury is a musical with music by Gerd Natschinski , lyrics by Jürgen Degenhardt and a libretto by Helmut Bez and Jürgen Degenhardt based on the comedy The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde . It premiered in the GDR in 1964 .
Natschinski comments on his music as follows: “My friend Bunbury plays in the twenties, which can be clearly characterized by the fashion dances of the time, by Black Bottom , Charleston and others. This provides a foundation on which the people act and to which they behave differently: The lords and ladies of the upper ten are assigned antiquated musical means, while Cecily, as the most progressive figure who wants to escape in a life in the midst of her hypocritical environment, penetrates to the elements of today's dance music. Outwardly, Jack feigns the Salvation Army soldier. I have given him musical forms that in no way discredit him, but also deny him a modern way of expressing himself: tango and waltz. "
content
Jack and his ward Cecily stand at a London train station collecting for the Salvation Army, along with Miss Prism and Pastor Chasuble. In their minds, both are already somewhere else. Jack wants to go to his friend Algernon to get engaged to his cousin Gwendolen, and Cecily wants to go to the "Music Hall" immediately, because she appears there as the "Sunshine Girl". Miss Prism and the pastor have no idea of these plans.
Boredom has broken out in the house of crime writer Algernon Moncrieff. He's looking for an excuse to break away from his friends and visit the Music Hall. His butler, Jeremias, reports eagerly that his poor (imaginary) friend called Bunbury and urgently wants to speak to him. The friends leave the house because of this news, but then Jack shows up and for the time being keeps him from his plan - just like Algernon's aunt Lady Bracknell and his cousin Gwendolen, who show up a short time later. After some back and forth, Jack and Gwendolen secretly leave the house. Algernon also manages to pull an adaptation of his last novel out of his aunt's pocket before he can finally leave for his friend “Bunbury”.
Algernon visits the "Music Hall" for a reason. The "Sunshine Girl" has done it to him, and he spontaneously hires her for Jack and Gwendolen's engagement. However, he does not introduce himself to Cecily as Mr. Moncrieff, but uses his pseudonym Bunbury. Cecily, who has often been given the name Bunbury by Jack as an excuse, is delighted and curious to finally get to know this wicked Bunbury personally.
At the engagement party there is a scandal. Jack has to admit to Lady Bracknell that he is not wealthy and works for the Salvation Army. Worse still, he has neither father nor mother to show, because Thomas Cardew, the late Salvation Army general, found him as a baby in a travel bag in the luggage storage at Victoria Station. Lady Bracknell throws him out.
Cecily, who believes she has been personally hired by Bunbury, learns that she is supposed to perform at her uncle Jack's engagement party. Thus, she would be exposed as the "Sunshine Girl" and her fortune gone - because Thomas Cardew bequeathed her 25,000 pounds in his will, but only if she remains loyal to the Salvation Army until her 25th birthday to exclusively listen to "pious songs" to sing. Things get a little complicated, but all characters manage to get out of the affair once again.
The amorous Algernon, who now smells the money at Cecily, sets off to join the Salvation Army. A meeting of all people involved is inevitable and a showdown ensues. But all's well that ends well! Jack gets his Gwendolen and Algernon and Cecily are getting married too. There is even something for Lady Bracknell. The finale is full of surprises and reveals the great lie around the friend Bunbury.
Musical sequence
- Act I
- foreplay
- Come and be happy (Jack, Cecily, Chasuble, Prism, Chor)
- The serious duties (see above)
- From morning till after midnight (chasuble, prism, choir, singing ballet)
- Reminiscence: The Little Pleasures (Cecily, Jack)
- My friend Bunbury (Algernon)
- Five o'clock - Black Bottom (Algernon, quartet, choir)
- My friend Bunbury (Algernon, Jack)
- Like you (Gwendolen, Jack)
- A little horror and a little sex (Lady Bracknell)
- Interlude and ballet reminiscence
- Piccadilly (Cecily, men's quartet, choir)
- Fatima (Gwendolen, choir)
- The upper ten (Lady Bracknell, choir)
- Because I'm in love and happy (Algernon)
- Impostor Tango (Jack, Gwendolen, Choir)
- I'll hold you tight for life (Cecily, Algernon)
- Finale I (Cecily, Lady Bracknell, John, choir)
- II act
- I think it was the jasmine (Cecily)
- I'm perplexed (Cecily, Algernon, Jack)
- Sunshine-Girl (Cecily, Algernon)
- Back then in Soho (Cecily, choir)
- Reminiscence: Just like you (Gwendolen, Jack)
- How men lie (Cecily, Gwendolen, Algernon, Jack, John)
- Gluck, gluck a good swig (chasuble, chorus)
- Finale II (all)
Web links
- My friend Bunbury at schott-musik.de