Mesdames de la Halle
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| Title: | The ladies of the state |
| Original title: | Mesdames de la Halle |
| Shape: | operetta |
| Original language: | French |
| Music: | Jacques Offenbach |
| Libretto : | Armand Lapointe |
| Premiere: | March 3, 1858 |
| Place of premiere: | Paris |
| Playing time: | Around 1 hour |
| Place and time of the action: | Paris at the time of Louis XV. (18th century) |
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Mesdames de la Halle (original title in French, German "Die Damen der Halle", "Die Damen vom Stande", "Die Damen auf dem Markt") is an opérette-bouffe in one act by Jacques Offenbach ( music ) with a libretto by Armand Lapointe . The premiere took place in the Carnival of 1858 on March 3rd at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris . In contrast to previous pieces, Offenbach obtained full performance privilege for Mesdames de la Halle , which no longer imposed any restrictions on the number of actors or the use of choirs . In comparison, the piece also fell out of line due to its Buffonesque style and the excessive play with gender roles (half of the roles are travesty roles).
action
The scene of the action are the halls , a busy square in central Paris. The more mature vegetable traders Beurrefonue and Madou be the drum major ensnared Raflafla who is looking for a wealthy match, but have no interest in him. Her amorous attention is directed to the young chef Croûte-au-pot, who in turn is in love with the beautiful fruit dealer Ciboulette. As if that weren't enough, the fish seller Madame Poiretapée appears, another market woman who - despite the strict moral standards - has fallen in love with the preppy cook. The scene develops chaotically and the police lead it away. Croûte-au-pot and Ciboulette decide to get married, which evokes the indignation of the Poiretapée.
Eventually, and accompanied by a few fainting spells, it turns out that the orphan Ciboulette is in fact the daughter of Raflafla and Poiretapée. A wedding can now take place, and Ciboulette's parents also give in to their marital fate, rather by necessity.
Performance history and reception
After the Paris premiere in 1858, Mesdames de la Halle remained a popular part of the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens stage repertoir until she made her “rise” to the Opéra-Comique in 1940 . The piece was quickly exported to Germany (1859, 1867, Krolls Theater ), Vienna (1861–62, Treumanntheater , Carltheater ), Hungary (1861, 1863, Nemzeti Színház , Budai Népszínház) and London (1865, Oxford Music Hall ).
There were various translations that were not always good for the operetta. While the French-language Viennese premiere in 1861 was still accompanied by applause from the press with “Bouffes on tour”, after the next performance three quarters of a year later, criticism was voiced, especially of the apparently clumsy implementation (German text by Alois Berla ). Even the actors (including Johann Nestroy ) did not get away with it.
“The operetta that was performed the day before yesterday:“ Die Damen vom Stande ”(Mesdames de la Halle) from Offenbach damaged the localization and impaired the hoped-for success. The Lerchenfelder bricklayer's brush complexes the French coloring and, with its ultra-plastic coarseness, banishes the slight hint of flirting frivolity. [...] The [musical] performance did little to enhance the whole thing, least of all was Nestroy, who gave nothing more than the caretaker in another toilet [...]. "
The press agreed: “To spoil Offenbach's operettas after text and music is one of the favorite endeavors of this stage [...] The Berla's text is, even if some grotesque follies are taken into account, dull. The pretty unchanged music goes through the singing and crowing powers of the members [...] The public was passive from the beginning to the end. "
In Hungary the “Bouffes on tour” version was given first, and translations were subsequently performed (for example by Mihály Havi). In 1865 a successful performance took place at the Oxford Music Hall in London, although it did not seem to have resulted in a translation into English.
Current performances of Mesdames de la Halle took place in 2011 in the Zurich Opera House and in 2012 in the Opéra de Lyon .
context
Offenbach's operettas are to be understood against the background of bourgeois, patriarchal morality and the corresponding value system in art, and the cross-dressing comedy Mesdames de la Halle in particular cleverly plays with the levels of (immorality). Siegfried Kracauer calls the piece a parody of "traditional family touches" and explains how Offenbach demystifies "the great opera" in his music with the help of various details (such as the mixing of a military march with a children's melody). The use of quotations or the pastiche creates cross-references to works of “high art”. The libretto contains references to Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia , Molières Le Misanthrope or Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, among others .
Mesdames de la Halle was especially amused by the aspect of cross-dressing. The three title heroines were portrayed by men, while the part of the young man they desired was a trouser role . The love-mad drum major Raflafla remained male. The story of the family and young love found again was robbed of its bourgeois-romantic tendencies and the criticism of the preservation of appearances was clarified. The end of the piece delivered two couples united in marriage who were apparently mixed-sex, but under the guise of same-sex nature.
The game with gender roles has lost none of its popularity and relevance to this day, and since the emergence of the second wave of feminism in the 1960s, it has also increasingly referred to fundamental gender and equality issues. Comedies such as La Cage aux Folles , Hairspray , Victor / Victoria or Tootsie follow Offenbach in the satirical tradition, and his moral criticism from Mesdames de la Halle is directly quoted in Irma la Douce : Here, too, the action takes place in the halls, its side streets brothels and prostitutes were abundant; Here, too, the ladies are screaming and led away by the authorities.
Offenbach preferred to take up moral theater topics such as the role of money, marriage and lust, and confronted these with a bourgeois appearance. The characters in Mesdames de la Halle are bluntly controlled by these aspects: Have-nothing Raflafla feigns lust in order to get money, the market women pretend to be prudish while they actually go after the junk cook, who is driven by his own lust for ciboulette, illegitimate Parenthood comes to light and ultimately ends in a desired marriage, and even the casting of roles only gives the appearance of gender conformity. Offenbach used grotesque exaggeration in order to shift bourgeois values and civil service into the banal.
In this context, the operetta audience is also worth considering, because it was not about the broad middle class who wanted to spend a funny and self-critical evening. Around 1850 the still young operetta offered slippery and piquant entertainment aimed at wealthy male audiences. Accordingly, the upper middle class, nobility and influential rulers were Offenbach's well-entertained guests, accompanied by concubines or wives who, in the exaggerated disguise of a working-class milieu, recognized issues of their own class.
literature
- Kurt Gänzl : The Encyclopedia of the musical theater. 2nd ed. Schirmer Books, New York 2001, ISBN 0-02-864970-2 .
- Siegfried Kracauer : Jacques Offenbach and the Paris of his time. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1976, ISBN 3-518-10971-5 .
- Jacques Offenbach: Mesdames de la halle. The ladies in the market. Opéra bouffe en un acte par Armand Lapointe. Buffo operetta in one act, German version v. Josef Heinzelmann . Musical revision and practical processing by Caspar Richter . Bote & Bock, Berlin 1975.
- Ralph-Günther Patocka: Operetta as moral theater. Jacques Offenbach's libretti between moral school and moral corruption. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2002, ISBN 3-484-66039-2 .
Web links
- ANNO - AustriaN Newspapers Online. Historical Austrian newspapers and magazines online.
- IMSLP - International Music Score Library Project / Petrucci Music Library.
Individual evidence
- ^ Jacques Offenbach, Mesdames de la halle. The ladies in the market. Opéra bouffe en un acte par Armand Lapointe. Buffo operetta in one act, German version v. Josef Heinzelmann. Musical rev. U. practical processing of Caspar Richter. Vocal score m. french u. German text (Berlin: Bote & Bock, 1975).
- ↑ Ralph-Günther Patocka, Operetta as moral theater. Jacques Offenbach's libretti between moral school and moral corruption., (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2002), p. 87.
- ^ Kurt Gänzl, The Encyclopedia of the musical theater, 2nd ed. (New York: Schirmer Books, 2001), p. 1379.
- ↑ Patocka, p. 93.
- ↑ Patocka, p. 234.
- ↑ Gänzl, p. 1379.
- ↑ Sheets for music, theater and art. June 14, 1861, p. 3: "'The ladies of the hall' are likely to remain a preferred piece of the repertoire according to the lively success they have achieved, which is also attributable to the excellent teamwork." ( Http: // anno. onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=mtk&daten=18610614 ) (last accessed January 6, 2014)
- ^ Wiener Zeitung, February 23, 1862, p. 15. German translation by Alois Berla. Cast: Johann Nestroy (Jungfer Barbara Kletzenstingl, Gollatschen dealer), Mr. Grois (Mrs. Linsengruber), Mr. Knaak (Mrs. Hetschevetsch, both herb traders), Carl Treumann (Anastasius Bummerl, called the beautiful Ratabum), Miss Marek (Grete, Oebstlerin), Miss Weinberger (Peter Schwammerl, manorial cook), Mr. Ausim (Runzler, market judge). ( http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=wrz&daten=18620223 ) (last accessed on January 6, 2014)
- ↑ Blätter für Musik, Theater und Kunst, February 25, 1862, p. 3 ( http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=mtk&date=18620225 ) (last accessed January 6, 2014)
- ↑ Die Presse, February 23, 1862, p. 3 ( http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=apr&date=18620223 ) (last accessed January 6, 2014)
- ↑ Gänzl, p. 1379.
- ↑ http://www.ioco.de/2011/03/19/zurich-opernhaus-zurich-spielplan-ende-marz-april-2011 (last accessed January 6, 2014)
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from February 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (last accessed January 6, 2014)
- ↑ Patocka, p. 3.
- ^ Siegfried Kracauer, Jacques Offenbach and the Paris of his time, 1st edition (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1976), pp. 161–62.
- ↑ Patocka, pp. 88-89.
- ↑ Patocka, p. 275.
- ↑ Kracauer, pp. 161-162.
- ↑ Patocka, p. 19. The theater was not a morally impeccable place in the middle of the 19th century, and Offenbach himself did not allow his unmarried daughters to visit it.
