Viennese operetta

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László von Frecskay : Caricature for the premiere of the operetta Die Fledermaus in the satirical newspaper Die Bombe (1874)

Viennese operetta is a name for operettas that were premiered in Vienna between 1860 and around 1960 .

history

The Viennese operetta is based on the model of the Paris operetta, which was modern in the German-speaking area from around 1855 to 1870. It existed as a novelty genre in the musical theater for almost a hundred years. This time was ironically divided into a golden (until about 1900), silver (until about the 1920s) and “bronze” or “tinny” era (subsequent period). (The use of brass was not only related to quality, but also to the extensive use of brass instruments in some of the younger operettas.)

In addition to the traditional Viennese suburban theaters, newly founded privately owned theaters were the main venues. As the number of new productions rose by leaps and bounds up to the First World War, the Viennese operetta gained the reputation of commercial mass entertainment . The subtitle operetta was therefore often avoided and switched to the terms Singspiel , Musical Comedy or the like. - In the history of Viennese operetta, the brisk production of the less prestigious Singspielhallen is mostly not taken into account .

Origins

The theater bandmasters (from left to right) Carl Binder , Heinrich Proch , Anton Maria Storch , Franz von Suppè and Emil Titl , composers of the “first” Viennese operettas

Music has been important in the so-called Viennese folk comedy since its origins in the 18th century. Often, as far as the musical content was concerned, it was not possible to differentiate between an easy game opera and a farce , since both genres were performed in the same theaters with the same orchestra and in some cases with the same performers. The theater bandmaster Adolf Müller senior, for example, created over 600 complete stage music with overtures, choirs and songs from the 1820s to the 1880s . When the Viennese operetta came into being, there was a highly developed musical infrastructure, but the traditional forms of theater with music had become old-fashioned, admission prices had become more expensive, and a large part of the audience migrated from Vienna's suburban theaters to the newly emerging Singspielhallen.

In Carl Theater was founded in October 1858, the one-act wedding at lamplight of Jacques Offenbach listed with sensational success. This marked the beginning of the triumphant advance of the Parisian operetta in Vienna. In March 1860, also in the Carltheater, Johann Nestroy was the star in a Viennese adaptation of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld , which presumably came from himself.

The competition did not remain idle: Alois Pokorny , the director of the Theater an der Wien , after unsuccessful attempts to obtain a license for Offenbach performances, commissioned his conductor Franz von Suppè to set a suitable libretto in the French style. According to tradition, this resulted in the “first” Viennese operetta Das Pensionat , which took place in November 1860. The strong predominance of female roles on the stage and a series of dances had a modern and “French” effect. Apparently not only Offenbach's pieces served as models, but also early forms of revue , such as the show dances, which were given as professional interludes in the balls of the Paris Carnival.

At that time there were numerous new productions with a high music content on the Viennese stages. Many other Viennese composers besides Suppé, such as Ivan Zajc , were already composing operettas in the 1860s. Like Suppé, Carl Millöcker or Carl Zeller later represented an operetta that was committed to the older game opera . - From this early period, almost only Suppés Die Schöne Galathée (1865) remained in the repertoire.

The Viennese operetta met a public demand that arose from changes in the population structure during the early days of the company . The great importance of music suited a section of the audience who did not understand the subtleties of the Viennese dialect . This first phase of the Viennese operetta roughly coincides with the changes in the cityscape and population during the construction of the Vienna Ringstrasse . It is characterized by optimism and a great deal of openness to foreign influences.

"Classic" time

Operetta diva Marie Geistinger
Zygmunt Skwirczyński : The fixed stars of the Viennese operetta, surrounded by their satellites, in the Café Museum in the New Year's 1911 edition of the Illustrierte Zeitung

Main article: Golden era of operetta

The classical period of the Viennese operetta was based on changed social conditions: the world exhibition of 1873 , which was only partially successful, changed the cultural climate. The Vienna stock market crash in the run-up was one of the triggers of a decades-long world economic crisis ("long depression"). Cosmopolitan openness gave way to protectionism everywhere . A new generation of theater directors saw themselves as managers who mediated between traditional forms of theater and new forms of events in dance halls and halls.

While Suppé was still a theater music director who composed operas, operettas and other stage music on behalf of the management, Johann Strauss (son) was brought to the theater from the dance music scene and brought together with the theater practitioner Richard Genée . The librettist Camillo Walzel , who, as Genées collaborator, bourgeoisie and scrubbed the French models , also played a significant role in this phase of the Viennese operetta . This tactical performance by the theater entrepreneur Maximilian Steiner paved the way for the world success Die Fledermaus (1874). By bridging the gap between the theater and the ballroom , the Viennese operetta was fundamentally modernized.

This type of urban entertainment theater, which replaced the old-fashioned but increasingly glorified old Viennese folk theater , had militant opponents such as the writer Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn ("the operetta [...] this bastard of art that a stock market jobber with a Parisian cocotte." should have sired ”).

Alexander Girardi

Works such as Suppés Boccaccio (1879), Millöcker's Der Bettelstudent (1882), Strauss' Der Gypsy Baron (1885), Zeller's The Bird Trader (1891) or Ziehrer's Die Landstreicher (1899) fall into this classical period .

The Viennese operetta is not least a story of the divas who were admired as capricious characters in a time that was quite dependent on women, such as Marie Geistinger , Josefine Gallmeyer and Fritzi Massary . The so-called trouser roles , i.e. women in male roles, were extremely common because women only wore skirts in everyday life and it was therefore provocative to see them in trousers. Especially after 1900, the Viennese operetta also became the genre of tenors as projections of female longings like Richard Tauber . Alexander Girardi distinguished himself as a comedian in many operettas.

The economic and construction boom in the Art Nouveau era led to optimism. Franz Lehárs The Merry Widow established a kind of world domination of the Austrian entertainment industry ( somewhat disparagingly called " culture industry " by Theodor W. Adorno ) from 1905 onwards, in return for the fall of the Habsburg Monarchy , which was only interrupted by the US film of the 1920s.

Large Viennese theaters such as the Johann Strauss Theater or the Wiener Stadttheater were exclusively dedicated to operettas. With Die Csárdásfürstin (1915) and Countess Mariza (1924), Emmerich Kálmán became a specialist in Hungarian local color and a late symbol of the political success of the Austro-Hungarian compromise . However, he had to emigrate during the National Socialist era because of his Jewish origins.

"Silver" era

Main article: Silver operetta era

The "silver" time of the Viennese operetta after the First World War is characterized by the influences of revue , jazz and new fashion dances such as the foxtrot . While Lehár's later operettas tend to be operatic, the newer pieces try out lighter and more modern subjects and dramaturgical patterns. A new generation of librettists like Alfred Grünwald was at work. The large vocal ensemble takes a back seat to the “song” and the framing choir.

There is also a softening of the boundaries. The city of Vienna is losing importance both as a setting and as a premiere location. Bruno Granichstaedten moved his operetta Der Orlow (1925) to New York and put a jazz band on the stage. In Paul Abraham's operettas, too, the Viennese and Hungarian of his origins are combined with early forms of jazz ( Die Blume von Hawaii , 1931). In the 1930s he wrote original film operettas. In return, a nostalgic idea of old Vienna becomes the ideology of many potpourri operettas such as Heinrich Berté's Das Dreimäderlhaus (1916). Also Eysler devoted himself with success songs like The gold'ne Champion (1927) an ideal of Old Vienna, because of his Jewish origin, however, he fell into oblivion since the Second World War.

Composer names such as Oscar Straus , Leo Fall , Robert Stolz or Ralph Benatzky are associated with a newer type of operetta, which was shaped less by individual composers than by producers . One example is the revue operetta Im Weißen Rössl by Ralph Benatzky, premiered by Erik Charell in Berlin in 1930, with interludes by Robert Stolz, Bruno Granichstaedten , Eduard Künneke , and Robert Gilbert . The parody of tourist hype with jazzed-up folk tunes was made into a nostalgic folk play in the Austrian film adaptation of 1935 before the “ Anschluss ” , and the Jewish authors are no longer mentioned due to the co-production with a Berlin company.

The medium of record made the operetta melodies independent of the stage, and a development began that was continued by the jazz standards outsourced from stage productions . The pioneer here is the Tauber song “ Your is my whole heart ” from Lehár's The Land of Smiles (1929).

Aftertaste

The operetta lost its influence when the stage was no longer the main distribution medium for musical hits , i.e. with the advent of radio , gramophone and sound film . In Austria, however, these media initially felt obliged to the operetta. Austrian film successfully followed up on the operetta tradition several times, for example the directors Géza von Bolváry or Ernst Marischka (see history of the early Austrian sound film ). A very successful film operetta was Two Hearts in Three-Four Time (1930) with music by Robert Stolz . The stage version of this film from 1933 was no longer premiered in Vienna, but in the Stadttheater Zürich. - Operetta music and film music mixed together in the 1930s because many composers worked for both film and the stage.

During the Second World War, the operettas by Nico Dostal or Fred Raymond exuded unmoved serenity.

As a novelty genre, the Viennese operetta retained unbroken continuity in the second half of the century beyond the last works by Robert Stolz ( spring parade ), Ludwig Schmidseder ( farewell waltz ) and Gerhard Winkler .

After the war, television made use of the Viennese operetta, while the composer Robert Stolz, who had returned from exile, invented the ice operetta . Singers such as Hermann Prey , Rudolf Schock , Anneliese Rothenberger , Peter Alexander distinguished themselves in countless programs with potpourris and artist talks. Since the 1960s, with the emergence of pop music , the genre - with a few exceptions such as Igo Hofstetter - appeared exhausted, but has retained a niche to this day, including since 2009 with the performances of the Viennese operetta summer .

characterization

The distinction between the Viennese operetta and the “ farce with singing” (Nestroy), the comic opera or game opera ( Albert Lortzing ) is fluid. But it is no longer oriented towards the German-speaking petty bourgeoisie , like those genres , but towards the upper middle class .

Since around 1850, based on the model of the London Music Halls, numerous Singspielhallen for a petty-bourgeois and sub-bourgeois audience, such as the Fürst Theater in Vienna's Prater , which offered a mixed entertainment program. That is why the operetta in traditional suburban theaters such as the Theater an der Wien and the Carltheater tried to target an upper-class audience and to give space for representative seeing and being seen. The Viennese operetta was conceived as a luxury event from the start.

The two pauses between the three acts of the Viennese operettas became social events with fixed rules. The main applause was after the second act. The third act is often just a sequel with little music and a central comedian (based on the model of the frog in the bat ).

The Viennese operetta is seldom a parody, compared to Offenbach's myth and opera parodies or the daily persiflage of the Berlin operetta. This may be explained by the fact that the parody tradition of the 18th century was even more alive in Vienna than in other cities and that the operetta, on the other hand, should be something modern. Nestroys Tannhäuser or the fight on the Wartburg (1857) was seen in the series of older opera parodies like his Meyerbeer parody Robert der Teuxel (1833) and was therefore “nothing new”. A successful combination of the opera parody with the Viennese operetta is the Richard Wagner parody Die Lustigen Nibelungen (1904) by Oscar Straus . The parody always belonged to a lesser genre than the parodied work, which is why the Viennese operetta tried to emancipate itself from it.

In order to distinguish himself from the “frivolous” French pieces, Lehár preferred sentimental and pathetic subjects in his later operettas, so that the comedic moments in them sometimes seem like a stylistic break . His operetta Giuditta (1934) was premiered at the Vienna State Opera and, in the tradition of the Opéra comique , not much different from Bizet's Carmen (1875), tried to win tragic facets from the socially underprivileged main characters. Overcoming the class clause is still the historical background for this mostly serious work, which is described as a comedy .

The Viennese operetta is more static than the Paris operetta or the later Berlin operetta and has a preference for sweeping ceremonial events. In terms of dance and music, the Viennese waltz has an important dramaturgical function. The Viennese operetta avoids the satirical aggressiveness of the Parisian and Berlin operettas and rather promotes a dampening of all conflicts through musicalization. Elegant hussars and dragoons on the operetta stage concealed the political and military weakness of the Danube monarchy . With some Viennese operettas, such as Der Zigeunerbaron (1885) by Johann Strauss, an attempt was made to ideologically bridge the increasing differences within the multi-ethnic mix. The historian Moritz Csáky coined the catchphrase of the "backward-looking utopia".

List of composers (chronological)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Adam Müller Guttenbrunn: Vienna was a theater city , Vienna: Graeser 3rd ed. 1885. p. 8.
  2. ^ Fritz Hennenberg: Legends about the White Horse Inn: Benatzky or "Usky". Ralph Benatzky on the 50th anniversary of his death , in: Österr. Musikzeitschrift, 10: 2007, pp. 17-29

literature

  • Anton Bauer: Operas and Operettas in Vienna. Böhlau, Graz, Cologne 1955.
  • Moritz Csáky : Ideology of the Operetta and Viennese Modernism. A cultural-historical essay on Austrian identity. 2nd Edition. Böhlau, Vienna-Cologne-Weimar 1998, ISBN 3-205-98930-9 .
  • Kevin Clarke : The jazz band is already playing in heaven. Emmerich Kálmán and the transatlantic operetta 1928–1932. v. Bockel, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-932696-70-1 .
  • Marion Linhardt : royal seat and metropolis. On a cultural topography of Viennese entertainment theater (1858–1918). Max Niemeyer Vlg., Tübingen 2006, ISBN 3-484-66050-3 .
  • Marion Linhardt (ed.): Operetta and Revue in the Journalistic Debate (1906–1933). Quodlibet, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-901749-76-6 .
  • Hans-Dieter Roser : Chacun à son goût! Cross-dressing in the Viennese operetta 1860–1936 . In: Kevin Clarke (ed.): Glitter and Be Gay: The authentic operetta and its gay admirers . Männerschwarm Vlg., Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-939542-13-1 , pp. 41-59.
  • Franz von Hohenegg: Operetta kings. A Viennese theater novel. Hermann Laue Vlg., Berlin undated (approx. 1906) - Plays behind the scenes of the Theater an der Wien after the premiere of the Merry Widow and allows intimate insights into Viennese theater conditions.

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