One touch of Venus
One Touch of Venus is a musical by Kurt Weill (music) and Ogden Nash (lyrics). The book is by SJ Perelman and Ogden Nash based on the Pygmalion- inspired story The Tinted Venus by F. Anstey (pseudonym of Thomas Anstey Guthrie ). The premiere took place on October 7, 1943 at the Imperial Theater in New York. It was directed by Elia Kazan , the role of Venus was played by Mary Martin and the musical director was Maurice Abravanel . The musical was Weill's most successful Broadway show with 567 performances.
One Touch of Venus ( A Touch of Venus ) had its German premiere on 17 June 1994 in Meiningen Theater , in a translation by Richard Emanuel ordination. In 1998 the Freiburg Theater showed the musical in a translation by Markus Kupferblum and Richard Weihe. In 2001 a production followed in Berlin with Marianne Rosenberg in the title role. In 2011 the musical final project of the students in the musical course at the Folkwang University of the Arts Essen was staged (premiere on May 28, 2011 in the Bayer Erholungshaus, Leverkusen; new translation of the dialogues: Sabine Ruflair). A new German version by Roman Hinze has been running at the Dresden State Operetta since June 22, 2019 (staging: Matthias Davids , musical direction: Peter Christian Feigel ) and has also been released on CD as a live recording and the first complete German-language recording.
action
When the hairdresser Rodney Hatch is on a commercial home visit to the art collector and art academy president Whitelaw Savory, he raves about his new acquisition, a Greek-ancient statue of Venus.
In an unobserved moment, Rodney puts the engagement ring originally intended for his fiancé Gloria on the statue, which brings the Venus statue to life. She immediately falls in love with the first person present, Rodney. He tries in vain to flee from the love-mad Venus - the entanglements begin: Rodney is accused of theft of the statue's disappearance, Venus ships Gloria, her rival in love affairs, to the North Pole, whereupon Rodney is suspected of murder and imprisoned. From there he is freed by Venus, spends a night of love with her and is finally abandoned by the conjured back Gloria.
Now that Rodney is free and madly in love himself, Venus doubts whether she can be granted a divine life at the side of this man. So it returns to its pedestal and becomes marble again.
Well-known music numbers
- Speak low
- How Much I Love You
- That's him
- I'm a stranger here myself
- Forty Minutes for Lunch ( Ballet )
- Venus in Ozone Heights ( Ballet )
filming
The film adaptation of the same name from 1948 by William A. Seiter with Ava Gardner is based on the musical and was musically arranged by Ann Ronell .
literature
- Stephan duty: musical guide , Schott Music Int. GmbH + Co (June 2001), ISBN 3-7957-8206-6 , ISBN 978-3-7957-8206-1
Web links
- One Touch of Venus in the Internet Broadway Database (IBDb)
- One Touch of Venus (1943) at Kurt Weill Foundation of Music (English)
- One Touch of Venus at The Guide to Musical Theater (English)
- One Touch of Venus (A touch of Venus) at musikundbuehne.de
- The Theater: New Musical in Manhattan, Oct. 18, 1943 Review in TIME Magazine for the launch of One Touch of Venus (English)
- One Touch of Venus / Venus makes infidelities (1948) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- One Touch of Venus (1955) (TV) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alex Ross: Maurice Abravanel, 90, Utah Symphony Leader . In: The New York Times . September 23, 1993, ISSN 0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed September 19, 2017]).