Venus in silk
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Venus in silk |
| Shape: | operetta |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Robert proud |
| Libretto : | Alfred Grünewald, Ludwig Herzer |
| Premiere: | December 10, 1932 |
| Place of premiere: | City Theater Zurich |
| people | |
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Venus in Silk is an operetta in three acts by the composer Robert Stolz (Opus 600). The libretto was written by Alfred Grünewald and Ludwig Herzer . The premiere of the operetta took place on 10 December 1932 Zurich City Theater instead.
action
The action takes place in Hungary around 1830 .
- prehistory
The princess and beautiful widow Jadja Milewska-Palotay once came to Hungary from her native Poland . There she married the old Prince Palotay. After his death, she is now the heir to his property and exercises control over the servants and staff. However, the legal validity of the inheritance is being challenged; Princess Jadja has been going through annoying inheritance proceedings for years. The original owner of the Szegedvár Castle and the goods, the old Prince Teleky, had to emigrate for political reasons . He was expelled from the country as a political frondeur . He had previously given his property to his friend Palotay for management and usufruct.
The old Prince Teleky was given amnesty, but is no longer alive. His son, Stephan Teleky, is now asserting the inheritance claims. He wants to take possession of the Szegedvár Castle and live there. However, Princess Jadja refuses to vacate the property. Nor did she appear in court. During the trial, Stephan Teleky presented the court with a painting of Jadja, painted by Hans Makart , which shows her as "Venus in silk". He accused her in court of having stolen the inheritance simply because of her beauty. Reason enough for Jadja to hate Stephan Teleky profoundly.
- 1st act
Princess Jadja gives a big party at her castle, a carnival ball , at which she also performs a song from her homeland ("Far away in beautiful Poland ... play on your violin!"). Tonight she wants to announce her marriage to Jozsy Oroszy, son of the influential Obergespans (district official) Oroszy. However, the groom does not appear at the party at the appointed time. A stranger appears and brings the news that Joszy has been kidnapped by the notorious robber chief Rozsa Sándor. The stranger reveals himself to the pastor as Stephan Teleky. The head coach and the guests present immediately speculated wildly as to who the stranger might be. Some even mistake him for the robber himself.
The dragoon lieutenant Ladislaus von Köröshazy courted Oroszy's niece Mizzi ("Miss, oh miss!"). The Buffo couple is also getting very close.
Oroszy sends Ladislaus with a detachment of soldiers to look for Jozsy. Jadja is immediately taken with the mysterious stranger; the two immediately fall in love with each other ("Let's ask the knowing cards ... someone like you was always my dream!"). Then a second stranger enters the hall and claims to be Prince Teleky and to have just won the trial against Princess Jadja.
- 2nd act
The second stranger is actually the robber chief Rozsa Sándor. He reveals himself to Stephan Teleky and confesses that he actually kidnapped the young Oroszy. He wants to leave with the ransom and Jadja's wedding jewelry that the robbers have taken from Oroszy. Teleky does not reveal Sándor, but demands that he hand over the jewelry. At midnight, Teleky appears to reveal his identity. He now claims to be the robber Rozsa Sandor, the jewelry is his ID. In the meantime Lieutenant Ladislaus has returned, he has found no trace of Joszy. Teleky woos Jadja passionately ("Gold, I give you jewels ... Just for you, only for you, my heart beats alone!"). Jadja, overwhelmed by Stephen's charm and bravado, allows the priest present to marry Stephan.
- 3rd act
Teleky has brought Jadja to a staged robber camp and continues to play the bandit there. The chief also thinks Teleky is the robber and has found out where he is hiding. In order to get his son still the princess, he wants to have the whole band of robbers dug up. Now the princess learns that she has actually married the rightful heir Stephan Teleky. Of course, she forgives Stephan, since she has long since ceased to live without him. Joszy Oroszy finally consoles himself with Countess Piroschka. The dragoon lieutenant Ladislaus, who has been flirting intensely with Countess Mizzi during the entire plot ("Play with me, always only with me, on the little golden mandolin!"), Finally comes together with his Mizzi. The robber Sándor is pardoned, but has to go to fight against the Serbs .
plant
Venus in silk is a "Hungarian-princely mistake comedy". The plot, with its entanglements in love and elements of confusion, contains “good” roles for the prima donna , the tenor, the buffo couple and the indispensable operetta comedian.
In contrast to Stolz's previous operetta When the Little Violets Bloom (1932), which contained features of the Singspiel and revue elements, Venus in Silk is a “classic vocal operetta in the style of the times”. The work is one of the musically complex operettas by Robert Stolz. The operetta proudly provided lavish music, which also includes choral movements and grand finals. Larger musical ensembles, several detailed love duets between Jadja and the stranger and elaborated finales thus determine the musical sequence. However, the plot remains conventional, as it is known from the start that the lovers will find each other and that there will be a happy ending in the end. Here, too, as in almost all operettas, Mizzi and Ladislaus are opposed to the pair of lovers, a musically rich buffo couple.
The operetta Venus in Silk was re-enacted by several theaters (including 1939 at the Dortmund City Theater ), but, in contrast to earlier operettas by Stolz, it did not achieve any lasting success on the stage and has since been almost completely forgotten. Only individual songs, especially the Jadja performance song, have been preserved as solo numbers for operetta stars. The work is still occasionally shown on stage today. In 1967 there was a production of Venus in silk at the Mörbisch Seefestspiele . Sári Barabás and Rudolf Christ sang the leading roles . In the 1980s there was a production of Venus in silk in Warsaw . In 1985 a production followed at the Zwols Muziektheater in Zwolle . In 1997 the Musical Comedy Leipzig brought out a new production.
Venus in silk is listed in the Robert Stolz catalog raisonné (RSWV) under the number 443 (RSWV 443) published in 1980 by Stephan mandatory on behalf of the Robert Stolz Foundation and published by the music publisher Emil Katzbichler.
The sex film Venus in Silk (1970) by Hans Billian only bears the same title as the operetta by Robert Stolz; it is not a film adaptation of the operetta.
Audio documents
A complete musical recording of the work is not available.
In 1954, a small musical cross-section was created at Südwestrundfunk Kaiserslautern under the musical direction of Emmerich Smola . The then unknown young Fritz Wunderlich sang the tenor role . This recording is available as a private recording.
In 1966 the record label Ariola-Eurodisc released a "Large Cross Section" with the musical highlights. The soloists were: Margit Schramm (Jadja), Rudolf Schock (Der Fremde / Teleky), Ferry Gruber (Ladislaus von Köröshazy) and Liselotte Schmidt (Countess Mizzi). The composer Robert Stolz himself conducted the Berliner Symphoniker . This record recording has since been re-released as a CD, including by the Hamburg Archive for Singing Art.
Probably the most famous operetta song, Jadja's performance song "Play the song of suffering and lust ...", is available in numerous single recordings and was performed by many well-known operetta singers (Sári Barabás, Lucia Popp , Anneliese Rothenberger ), musicians as interpreted by Klaus Wunderlich and orchestras like James Last .
literature
- Heinz Wagner: The great operetta book . Parthas Publishing House. Berlin 1997. Page 288/289. ISBN 3-932529-02-2
- Venus in silk . Record cover Ariola-Eurodisc GmbH. Order number 89 872 IE. (1 LP)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Operetta window archive Radio Stephansdom
- ↑ a b c Eugen Semrau: Robert Stolz. His life. His music . Residenz Verlag . Salzburg 2002, p. 53. ISBN 3-7017-1309-X
- ↑ a b Venus in silk people, song numbers, plot
- ↑ 1967 Venus in Silk (Robert Stolz) ( Memento from December 31, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Cast (production statistics 1957-2005 of the Mörbisch Seefestspiele)
- ↑ a b c STOLZ, Robert - Venus in silk Tamino-Klassikforum ; last accessed on February 5, 2013
- ↑ Venus in Silk Hamburg Archive for Singing Art