Sissy (operetta)
| Work data | |
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| Title: | Sissy |
| Shape: | operetta |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Fritz Kreisler |
| Libretto : | Ernst and Hubert Marischka |
| Literary source: | Comedy by Ernst Decsey and Gustav Holm |
| Premiere: | December 23, 1932 |
| Place of premiere: | Vienna |
| Place and time of the action: | Possenhofen and Ischl 1853 |
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Sissy is a Singspiel in two acts (four pictures) by Fritz Kreisler that is close to the operetta . The libretto comes from the brothers Ernst and Hubert Marischka . It is based on the comedy Sissy's Brautfahrt by Ernst Décsey and Gustav Holm . The work had its world premiere on December 23, 1932 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna . Here played Paula Wessely the lead role.
action
place and time
The work is set in Possenhofen Castle on the Würmsee in Bavaria and in Ischl in Austria from August 15 to 17, 1853.
first act
Image: Bay room with terrace
In order to recover from the nerve-wracking state affairs for a few days, Duke Max of Bavaria went to the Possenhofen castle with his wife Luise and daughters Sissy and Nené. However, Duchess Luise cannot accept the calm. She knows that her sister, Archduchess Sophie of Austria, is currently in Ischl with her son, the still unmarried young Emperor Franz Joseph. Now she is waiting impatiently to be picked up by an imperial servant. Nené is to accompany them on the journey. The sisters Luise and Sophie hope that the emperor will take a liking to Nené and that the court camp in Ischl will end with an engagement of the children.
The imperial messenger comes and picks up the two guests. However, Nené is not impressed by her mother's plan, as she only recently fell in love with the Prince of Thurn und Taxis. In the rush, the girl forgets to take her court dress with her.
Sissy can't understand that her father didn't receive an invitation. After all, he has a say in the matter when the fate of his daughter is decided. She keeps talking to him until he decides to follow his wife and daughter Nené. Sissy accompanies him and also takes the forgotten dress with her.
Metamorphosis - image: reception hall
As the emperor is sitting at breakfast and looking through the window, he discovers a girl is picking flowers in the park. He finds this unheard of and orders that the brazen person be shown to him. In the meantime, Duke Max has managed to get into the villa. Franz Joseph welcomes him kindly, and before you know it, the two hunting experiences exchange. They have hardly separated again when a security guard brings in the flower picker. Because she is carrying a dress in a box, the emperor takes her for a seamstress. But before the girl can introduce himself to him, Franz Joseph is called to his mother, who wants to introduce him to Nené. When he hears what is going on here, his mood worsens and he is reluctant to receive the bride he was supposed to be. In his mind he still lingers with the “seamstress”, who made a very deep impression on him.
Second act
Image: In the inn to the "Golden Ox"
The municipal men's choir wants to serenade the emperor for his birthday today and is busy rehearsing. Duke Max joins them incognito. Because of his affable manner he quickly wins the trust of the singers. But when the Emperor's mother and her sister enter the bar, the singing friends withdraw discreetly. The two sisters are surprised to find Max here, and shortly afterwards Sissy turns up. In the discussion that followed, she took full sides for her father.
Metamorphosis - Image: Park
In the evening, Archduchess Sophie has a party held in the park in front of the imperial villa. She and her sister Luise hope that Franz Joseph will use this as an opportunity to soon announce his engagement to Nené. Preparations are still in full swing when Sissy shows up with the dress she wants to bring to her sister. But at first she runs straight into the arms of the emperor. Because she is worried about her sister, she asks him quite openly how far the engagement has progressed. To her delight, she hears that Majesty has absolutely no intention of acting only as a plaything in the maternal plan. Sissy wants to bring this good news to Nené right away. The two women are overheard by their mother. When Max joins them, the conversation turns into a family quarrel. Now the emperor also wants to know what is going on here. Now he learns the true identity of the “seamstress”.
The birthday party begins: the choral society serenades the monarch. Then the ballet girls do their best. Franz Joseph uses the first opportunity that can be found to ask Sissy to dance. As she waltzes with him, they both feel that they are made for each other. At the height of the festival, the emperor announces his engagement to Sissy. Nené throws herself into the arms of her beloved Prince von Thurn und Taxis.
music
For the score of his Singspiel, Fritz Kreisler borrowed many melodies from the repertoire of his solo pieces that he composed for the violin, such as the Vienna March , Liebesleid - Liebesfreud , Schön Rosmarin and the Caprice viennoise . Of the compositions created especially for the operetta, the two waltzes A quiet happiness, a bit of music and I would so much like to be in love should be highlighted as musical highlights .
background
In 1931 Hubert Marischka bought the play Sissys Brautfahrt from Ernst Décsey and Gustav Holm . Together with his brother Ernst Marischka and the authors of the play, he rewrote it into a libretto for a Singspiel called Sissy . Bruno Granichstaedten was scheduled to be the composer , but then a telegram from the producer Shubert Brothers arrived from New York : “Looking for a libretto for Fritz Kreisler”. Without further ado, Granichstaedten was given a different libretto, while the libretto was sent to New York for Sissy .
Before the premiere, which was to take place as the Christmas premiere of the Theater an der Wien, Kreisler announced in the advance notice that he had canceled all of his American concerts and waived a fee of 50,000 dollars in order to be able to conduct the premiere in Vienna. Paula Wessely played Sissy, Hans Jaray Franz Joseph and Hubert Marischka Sissy's father Herzog Max. The theater was sold out for weeks.
Leading actress Paula Wessely, a celebrated stage actress, was a newcomer to the field of operetta. She prepared for her role with her own vocal studies, but the three highest notes of the song I would love to be in love had to be taken over by a singer who was placed backstage. Wessely herself later reported that her voice had been impaired for a long time due to the screaming scenes in the recently very successful play Rose Bernd . The duet Yes, who says that ... was spoken by her and Jaray, and at the beginning of the song I think happiness is holding me in her arms today , she went to the back of a garden where an invisible singer was waiting.
When the imperial anthem was sung at the end of the performance , the audience rose from their seats, even though the monarchy had been abolished for 14 years.
Since Wessely had to fulfill her obligations at the Theater in der Josefstadt, there was a second and third cast. Hedy Lamarr was the second sissy. It appeared as a special insert when the curtain was opened on a horse, while a few bars of the imperial hymn sounded, but they were drowned out in the roaring applause. The third sissy line-up was Rose Stradner .
Sissy was played en suite 289 times . After the annexation of Austria , a performance was no longer possible because of the composer of Jewish origin. The theater sold the rights for $ 160,000 to the American film company Universal Studios , which produced the film The King Steps Out with it .
Ernst Marischka took up the topic again in the 1950s and produced his extremely successful Sissi trilogy.
literature
- Anton Würz: Reclams Operettenführer , 23rd edition, ISBN 3-15-010512-9
- Franz Zwetschi Marischka : Always smile. Stories and anecdotes from theater and film ; Vienna: Amalthea, 2001; ISBN 978-3-85002-442-6 .
- Georg Markus : The Hörbigers. Family biography . Vienna: Amalthea Verlag, 2006. ISBN 3-850-02565-9