The Gondoliers (Operetta)
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| Title: | The gondoliers |
| Original title: | The Gondoliers or the King of Barataria |
Performed in 1907 |
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| Original language: | English |
| Music: | Arthur Sullivan |
| Libretto : | WS Gilbert |
| Premiere: | December 7, 1889 |
| Place of premiere: | Savoy Theater , London |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Venice and Barataria, 19th century |
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The Gondoliers or, The King of Barataria ( Die Gondolieri or Der König von Barataria ) is an operetta by the composer Arthur Sullivan and the librettist WS Gilbert . It premiered on December 7, 1889 at the Savoy Theater , and by June 30, 1891 there had been 551 performances. The operetta was the twelfth in the collaboration between Gilbert and Sullivan and their last great mutual success.
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The Gondoliers was written as a love and mistaken comedy set far away from England so that the authors could criticize the monarchical structures in their home country uncensored.
first act
In a square in Venice.
The newly wed gondoliers Marco and Giuseppe Palmieri learn from the Venetian Grand Inquisitor Don Alhambra that one of them is the only son of the recently deceased King of Barataria. As a toddler, the king's son was entrusted to a gondolier who soon could no longer distinguish him from his own son of the same age. The two are now to begin the orphaned reign in Barataria together, until it has been clarified which of them is the rightful king.
The Duke of Plaza-Toro, his wife, daughter Casilda and the servant Luiz arrive in Venice from Spain. As a small child, Casilda was married to the Prince of Barataria, who was the same age and who is now wanted here to complete the marriage. But Casilda loves the servant Luiz, who tells her that his mother Inez was the nurse of the royal baby.
The two gondoliers' brides Tessa and Gianetta are saddened that their husbands should leave them and consoled themselves with the prospect that one of them will then become a queen.
Second act
In the palace of Barataria, about three months later.
Marco and Giuseppe, dressed as princes, sit on two thrones and begin to rule in their own way (the Monarchy has been re-modeled on Republican principles) . The court offices gave them to the colleagues who traveled with them, which Don Alhambra said with the sentence When every one is somebodee, Then no one's anybody! criticized.
They miss their wives, who have now followed them. The Duke's family also appears in Barataria. Don Alhambra explains to the two pretenders to the throne and their brides that the real prince is already married to Casilda, which increases the confusion, and arithmetic that two men are now married to three women is not consoling. Finally Inez announces that the real prince is the servant Luiz. To general cheers, Luiz crowns his bride Casilda.
Music numbers
- overture
first act
- Choir and solos: List and learn
- Duke, Duchess, Casilda and Luiz: From the sunny Spanish Shore
- Duke: In the enterprise of martial kind
- Casilda and Luiz: O rapture, when alone together
- Casilda and Luiz: There was a time
- Don Alhambra: I stole the Prince
- Casilda and Don Alhambra: But, bless my heart
- Duke, Duchess, Casilda, Luiz and Don Alhambra: Try we life-long
- Choir and Tessa: Bridegroom and Bride… When a merry maiden marries
- Gianetta: Kind sir, you cannot have the heart
- Marco, Giuseppe, Gianetta, Tessa: Then one of us will be a Queen
Second act
- Choir: Of happiness the very pith
- Giuseppe and Chorus: Rising early in the morning
- Marco: Take a pair of sparkling eyes
- Solos and choir: Here we are at the risk of our lives
- Choir (dance): Dance a Cachucha
- Don Alhambra: There lived a king
- Marco, Giuseppe, Gianetta and Tessa: In a contemplative fashion
- Choir: With ducal pomp
- Duchess: On the day when I was wedded
- Duke and Duchess: To help unhappy commoners
- Duke, Duchess, Casilda, Marco and Giuseppe: I am a courtier grave and serious
- Marco, Giuseppe, Casilda, Tessa and Gianetta: Here is a case unprecedented ...
- Finale: Now let the loyal lieges gather round
Sound carrier
The operetta was first recorded on phonograms by Harry Norris in 1927 . It was then recorded repeatedly. The operetta has been filmed repeatedly since the 1960s.
Web links
- Sound recordings The Gondoliers in the catalog of the German National Library
- The gondoliers. On diamond.boisestate.edu
- The gondoliers. Text and images in The Gilbert & Sullivan Archive
- The Gondoliers or The King of Barataria. German translation by Otto Maag, evidence for theater texts
Individual evidence
- ^ WS Gilbert: The highly respectable gondolier. Lyrics ( Wikisource ).
- ↑ The Gondoliers. Table of contents at the German Sullivan Society.
- ↑ The Gondoliers (1990) in the Internet Movie Database (English)