Peter and Paul travel to the land of milk and honey
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Peter and Paul travel to the land of milk and honey |
| Original title: | Peter and Paul travel to the land of milk and honey |
| Shape: | operetta |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Franz Lehár |
| Libretto : | Fritz Grünbaum and Robert Bodanzky |
| Premiere: | December 1, 1906 |
| Place of premiere: | Cabaret Hell in the Theater an der Wien , Vienna |
| Place and time of the action: | A fictional village and the land of milk and honey |
| people | |
and much more |
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Peter and Paul Travel to the Cockaigne is a children's operetta in a prelude and five pictures by the composer Franz Lehár and the librettists Fritz Grünbaum and Robert Bodanzky . The first performance took place on December 1, 1906 in the cabaret Hölle in the basement of the Theater an der Wien .
action
Peter and Paul are unhappy foster children and apprentices at the Schuster Kneipp. They are mistreated and regularly beaten. One day they decide to flee. On their escape, they pass through a village, where they hear about the fabulous land of milk and honey from a host . The two of them are enthusiastic about the promises of this land and they immediately set off to visit this land. Once there, they enjoy all the tempting freedoms such as unlimited food, games and lazing around. Ultimately, however, idleness does not satisfy them. They realize that life should be more than just acting out laziness. You decide to go back to normal life and make yourself useful there with honest work. But they don't want to let go of the Schlaraffen. The good fairy Laborosa then helps them to escape successfully. You return to Kneipp's house and notice that a lot has changed there. The Kneipp couple are happy about the return of the children and regret their behavior earlier. From now on there is no more abuse. The evil spirit Schlendrianus makes one last unsuccessful attempt to wrest the children from the Kneipp. Afterwards, the reunited family celebrates Christmas.
reception
This children's operetta was the composer's first work after the worldwide success of The Merry Widow . A work for children similar to the opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck was planned . Lehár's children's operetta could not keep up with the success of this work , let alone the Merry Widow . However, as an Internet search revealed, the work is still occasionally performed on a smaller scale for and by children. The work was also the first of four Lehár works that was premiered in the basement of the Theater an der Wien, the so-called cabaret hell . The other works were Mitislaw der Moderne (1907), Rosenstock and Edelweiss (1912) and Spring (1922).
Music numbers
The following music numbers from the work are known:
- The lazy Schlendrian (children's song)
- Knock, knock, knock (nursery rhyme)
- Lullaby (nursery rhyme)
- Soldier game (children's song)
- Blind cow (nursery rhyme)
- The rocking horse (nursery rhyme)
- Christkindlein (children's song)
- Drummers or Defelier March
- Rocking polka
- Poppy waltz
- ballet
- Honey nymph waltz
- Gingerbread Polka
- Acrobat gallop
- Piglet dance
- Lucky mushroom gavotte
Web links
- Peter and Paul in the land of milk and honey in the operetta lexicon
- Online publication of Lehár's works page 99
literature
- Norbert Linke : Franz Lehár . Rororo-Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2001, p. 49