Where the lark sings

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Work data
Title: Where the lark sings
Shape: operetta
Original language: Hungarian German
Music: Franz Lehár
Libretto : Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert
Literary source: The play Dorf und Stadt by Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer
Premiere: February 1, 1918
Place of premiere: Budapest
Place and time of the action: A Hungarian village and Budapest at the beginning of the 20th century
people
  • Török Pal, an old farmer
  • Margit, his granddaughter
  • Sandor Zapolja, a painter
  • Baron Arpad Ferenczy, his friend
  • Vilma Garamy, singer
  • Bodroghy Pista, a farm boy
  • Borcsa, maid

Painters, farm boys and farm girls

Where the Lark Sings is an operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár . The libretto is by Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert and is based on the play "Dorf und Stadt" by Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer . The work was premiered in Hungarian under the title "A Pacsirta" (= "The Lark") on February 1, 1918 at the Royal Opera in Budapest. The first performance in German took place on March 27, 1918 in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.

action

The operetta is set in a Hungarian village and in Budapest at the beginning of the 20th century and is about the ultimately unhappy love of a peasant girl named Margit for a painter named Sandor. He takes her to Budapest, where he wants to familiarize her with city life. Margit soon senses that she can't stand life in the city. In addition, Sandor turns back to his old love Vilma. Margit leaves Sandor and Budapest disappointed and returns to her home village where the lark sings . In her homeland she finds her way back to her former boyfriend Pista.

Reception and music

The operetta Where the Lark Sings has been filmed several times over the years. Franz Lehár set the work to music using Hungarian and Viennese style elements. A CD recording with the Franz Lehar Orchestra and the choir of the Lehár Festival Bad Ischl under the direction of Marius Burkert was released on the CPO label. Contributors included Gerhard Ernst , Sieglinde Feldhofer , Jevgenij Tauntsov, Wolfgang Gerold, Miriam Portmann, Florian Resetarits and Sinja Maschke. The following numbers can be heard on this CD:

  • It rubs in the arbor
  • What concern of the people
  • A touch of flowers
  • Through the wide fields
  • Beautiful Margit
  • On the bench
  • Yes in the country
  • Finale I.
  • Hungarian dances as music between acts
  • The Temesvar song
  • Far away as from days gone by
  • Finale II
  • Entr'akt
  • Finaletto

Compared to other operettas by the composer such as B. The Merry Widow has remained a little paler in the work and has therefore not been able to build on the great success of the composer in the long term. But that is less due to Lehar's music than to the textbook. Nevertheless, the start of the operetta was successful and in the first few years after the premiere it was still often on the theater schedules in German-speaking countries and in Hungary. Today the operetta is rarely performed as a complete work. However, individual pieces of music have survived and are occasionally played at concerts. The Glockenverlag Wien, which was once founded by Lehar, holds the copyrights to these numbers as well as to the entire work.

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