Victoria and her hussar
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Victoria and her hussar |
| Shape: | operetta |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Paul Abraham |
| Libretto : | Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda |
| Literary source: | Play by Imre Földes |
| Premiere: | February 21, 1930 |
| Place of premiere: | Budapest, Capital City Operetta Theater |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Siberia, Tokyo, Saint Petersburg and Hungary after 1918 |
| people | |
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Viktoria und ihr Husar is an operetta in a prelude and three acts with music by Paul Abraham . The libretto was written by Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda based on a play by Imre Földes . The work was premiered on February 21, 1930 in the Capital Operetta Theater in Budapest . The German premiere took place on July 7, 1930 at the Stadttheater in Leipzig . On December 23, 1930, it was the first time on an Austrian stage in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna; this date is often mentioned as the day of the premiere.
orchestra
A flute , an oboe , two clarinets , a bassoon , two horns , two trumpets , three trombones , a tuba , a harp , a celesta , a Hawaiian guitar , drums and strings.
action
place and time
After the end of the First World War, the operetta is set in a Russian prison camp in Siberia, in Tokyo (Japan) and Saint Petersburg (Russia) and in the Hungarian village of Dorozsma (near Szeged).
foreplay
Image: Steppe landscape in Siberia
Stefan Koltay, Rittmeister of the Hussars, was captured by Russia with his boy Jancsi. Because the two had joined a group there that was planning a counter-revolution, but the conspiracy was exposed, they were sentenced to death and are now waiting to be executed. Jancsi plays a wistful Hungarian melody on his violin again. She touches one of the Cossack guards so much that he promises the two Hungarians that he will release them if he receives the violin in return. Stefan Koltay and Jancsi don't need to think twice. After handing the violin over to the Cossack, they immediately leave the prison camp and flee to Japan.
first act
Image: Salon in the US Embassy in Tokyo
The wife of the American ambassador John Cunlight, Countess Viktoria, was once engaged to the hussar mountaineer Stefan Koltay. She had waited for him a long time after the end of the war. It was only when she received the news that her fiancé had fallen that she gradually gave in to John Cunlight's wooing and finally married him.
Stefan Koltay has heard that some of his compatriots were in the American embassy in Tokyo who were waiting to move to Hungary. That's why he goes there. It is inevitable that after years of separation he meets his beloved Victoria. She introduces him to her husband under a false name. In addition, Koltay learns that the ambassador has been transferred to Saint Petersburg and that the departure from Tokyo will take place in a few days. Viktoria's brother, Count Ferry, and his fiancée, the Japanese O Lia San, are already in a spirit of optimism. John Cunlight has no idea what fate his wife has in common with the newly arrived Hungary, and offers Stefan Koltay and his companion Jancsi to come with him under his diplomatic protection. From Saint Petersburg it would certainly be possible to create the opportunity to travel to Hungary without any worries. Jancsi is overjoyed because he fell in love with Victoria's pretty maid Riquette right away, and now he can stay close to her.
Second act
Image: Salon in the US Embassy in Saint Petersburg
When Stefan Koltay and Viktoria are alone for a moment, the two of them have an open discussion. Victoria describes how the marriage with John Cunlight came about. Stefan tries to persuade Viktoria to flee to Hungary with him. But she is determined to hold on to her marriage to John Cunlight.
The Russian secret service has found out that Stefan Koltay, who was once sentenced to death in a Siberian prison camp, is under a false name at the American embassy, and is ensuring that John Cunlight is ordered by the Russian government to extradite the Hungarians. When the diplomat holds the paper in his hands, he realizes that his wife once had a relationship with Stefan Koltay. Nevertheless, he defies the Russian request. But because Stefan Koltay believes that Viktoria's love for him has died out in the meantime, he voluntarily surrenders himself to the Russians. When Viktoria finds out about this, she collapses in despair. Now John Cunlight is painfully aware that his wife's true love does not belong to him, but to that Hungarian hussar cavalier.
Third act
Image: Village square in Dorozsma (Hungary)
Viktoria has since been divorced from her husband and has returned to her home village after a long trip around the world, where she meets again with her brother Ferry and her former maid Riquette. Because the traditional vintage festival is being celebrated and an old custom requires that three couples hold a wedding, Ferry wants to marry O Lia San and Riquette with Jancsi on this day. Only a third pair is missing. Ferry suggests that we order John Cunlight. He is now ambassador to Hungary and the capital is not far away after all. So Victoria could marry her John a second time, when their divorce was a snap that needed to be repaired.
When John Cunlight arrives, Victoria is ready to try again with him. But to her great surprise her beloved hussar cavalry master suddenly appears. When she also has to find out that John is not angry, but only smiles quietly, it falls like scales from her eyes: Her divorced husband has arranged everything that way. In fact, his love for her is so great that he did everything to make her happy. He renounces them out of pure nobility.
As the old custom requires, three happy couples can now say yes.
Musical highlights
- I am always drawn to my beloved home
- Yes, a girl like that, Hungarian girl, doesn't get out of her head, doesn't get out of my mind
- You were the star of my night
- My mom was from Yokohama
- On the Neva
- Mausi, you were sweet tonight
- A little Japanese girl dreams
- There is only one girl in the world
- Give me your hands once more as you say goodbye
Sound carrier
- Cross-section at EURODISC with Margit Schramm , Liselotte Ebnet , Rudolf Schock , Ferry Gruber and the Berliner Symphoniker under the direction of Werner Schmidt-Boelcke
Film adaptations
- 1931: Viktoria and her Husar , directed by Richard Oswald , with Michael Bohnen
- 1954: Directed by Rudolf Schündler , the main roles in the 95-minute German film were played: Eva Bartok , Friedrich Schoenfelder , Rudolf Forster , Georg Thomalla and Grethe Weiser . Script: Egon Eis and Franz Marischka . The lexicon of international films judges: “With a time-appropriate modification of the libretto, another film adaptation of Paul Abraham's operetta. Hussars who emigrated from red Hungary frame the reunion story between a former master and his pre-war friend who advanced from kitchen maid to Broadway star at a lavish Pusztafest in Hamburg. "
- 1975: TV adaptation of ZDF with Tamara Lund , Werner Krenn , Julia Migenes , Kurt Huemer , Bruce Low , Beate Granzow , Helmut Wallner , Benno Kusche . Directed by Eugen York .
literature
- Piper's Enzyklopädie des Musiktheater , Volume 1, Ed. Carl Dahlhaus and Research Institute for Music Theater of the University of Bayreuth under the direction of Sieghart Döhring, ISBN 3-492-02411-4 , p. 3/4
Web links
- Report on a performance of the Wuppertal stages in 2007 with photos of the scene
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information on the feature film from 1931
- ↑ Victoria and Her Hussar (1954) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- ↑ Information on the television production of ZDF 1975 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Victoria and her hussar (1975) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
