Queen of Spades (soup)
| Work data | |
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| Title: | Queen of Spades |
| Shape: | operetta |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Franz von Suppè |
| Libretto : | S. Strasser |
| Premiere: | June 20, 1864 |
| Place of premiere: | Thalia Theater, Graz |
| Place and time of the action: | Cologne around 1864 |
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Pique Dame is an operetta in two acts by Franz von Suppè from 1864.
history
Pique Dame is based on Suppé's one-act operetta Die Kartenschlägerin , which was premiered only two years earlier, on April 26, 1862, in the Theater am Franz-Josefs-Kai . This was not a success. Franz von Suppè rewrote the operetta for the Thalia Theater in Graz . Karl Millöcker , who was associated with the theater as Kapellmeister and, as a former student of Suppé, was committed to this, conveyed the commitment to Graz . For the revision, the work was expanded from one act to two and the title changed to Queen of Spades. It is not certain whether the title refers to Alexander Pushkin 's story of the same name , published in 1834, but the plot certainly does not. The new version in Graz was also unsuccessful and it was never performed in Vienna . All that remains is the overture, which, like many other overtures, became world famous.
The authorship of the libretto has long been in doubt. The occasional statement that the libretto of the previous work Die Kartenschlägerin was written by Karl Treumann , who headed the Kai-Theater from 1860 to 1863, is based on a presumption by Julius Kromer. Only the initials N.N. are given as the librettist of the card bat , for the Queen of Spades the information S. S. Hans-Dieter Roser suspects Sigmund Schlesinger (1832–1918) behind these initials. Andreas Weigel , on the other hand, assures that the libretto, which has been criticized by the critics, certainly did not come from Sigmund Schlesinger, who was already an experienced playwright in 1864 and whose works had been performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna since the 1850s . Apart from that, the initials "SS" in connection with suppés "Pique Dame" are used in the "Österreichische Buchhandels-Correspondenz" as "S. Strasser ”, with an“ S. Strasser ”lived - his future wife Sofie .
action
Emil, a young lieutenant who is also a composer, is in love with Hedwig, the daughter of a rich widow. Judith, a fortune teller who Emil thinks is his mother, reveals to him that she has only adopted him as a child. Emil tells her about his still platonic love for Hedwig. But Fabian Muker, a wealthy private citizen and Hedwig's guardian, is also after her. Emil put himself into his hands through a loan that he cannot repay. Judith frightens Muker while telling fortune from the cards with the Queen of Spades and the resulting nasty prophecies and lures him to a costume ball. There, after all sorts of jokes, Muker is exposed as a womanizer in a seduction scene reminiscent of Robert le diable . Judith reveals the secret: Emil is Muker's nephew and receives from him the inheritance withheld from him and, of course, conquers Hedwig's heart at the happy end.
music
It is characteristic of the small work that Suppé, as a critic already attested to him in the case of the card hit man, “did not [knew] how to be modest within the limits of the actual operetta”. That was hardly to be expected in the early days of the Viennese operetta , especially since it was only given what it should not be: no mere imitation of Offenbach , no farce (any more) and no opera. So it was a bit of everything somewhere. There is the (parodied) romantic song, a duet that could have sprung from a romantic opera and one in the best Italian operá-buffa manner, then (in the modern sense) something really operetta-like in the form of exoticism, in this case Spanish folkloric and Offenbach Cancan . The Spanish-colored choir piece was later used by Suppé again in the introduction of Boccaccio .
literature
- Hans-Dieter Roser: Franz von Suppé: Work and Life. Edition Steinbauer, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-902494-22-1 .
Recordings / sound carriers
- Michail Jurowski ( cond .), WDR Rundfunkchor Köln , WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln , Anjara Ingrid Bartz, Mojca Erdmann, Anneli Pfeffer, CPO, 2006
Web links
- The Card Beater : Sheet Music and Audio Files in the International Music Score Library Project
Individual evidence
- ↑ Neue Berliner Musikzeitung June 22, 1864, Vol. 18, p. 198 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
- ↑ see e.g. B. Carl Dahlhaus, Sieghart Döhring (Ed.): Piper's Encyclopedia of Music Theater: Spontini. Volume 6. Piper, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-492-02421-1 , p. 207 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
- ↑ Julius Kromer: Franz von Suppé: Leben u. Plant; A contribution to the history of d. Operetta in Vienna. Vienna, Phil. Diss., 1941, DNB 570499186 .
- ↑ Hans-Dieter Roser: Franz von Suppé: Work and Life. 2007, p. 89 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Andreas Weigel: Findings on the relationship between Franz von Suppè and his second wife Sofie Strasser. A correction.