Operetta Tunes on my mind
Sep 15 '09
The Bottom Line A few lighter but no less catchy tunes from the operetta even pop music fans can hum to.
The early heat of summer has arrived and my stereo/dvd play list has shifted to the lighter and breezier fare of the (mostly) charming French and German operettas. The more I listen, the harder it is to believe that this repertoire isn't more popular even among the non-classical music fans! Really, a well pulled off comedy is just as hard to performed as a bloody melodramatic real opera, I think.
Anyhow, here are a few tunes from the operettas that have been making rounds on my stereo of late:
Franz Lehár was a prolific composer. The first 4 tunes on my operetta play list come from 3 of his operettas. In the Russian theme Der Zarewitsch (The Tsarevich), Aljoscha, the handsome young crown prince of Russia frustrates his father and advisors by his decidedly frosty view toward women even though he is evidently not immune to loneliness (aria - Es steht ein Soldat am Wolgastrand (Volga Lied) (sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_ek5WqQcV0 )). Unbeknown to him, Sonya, one of the girls-in-men's-dress dancers in a Cossack dancing troupe, also shares the 'one day a true love will find me' melancholy (aria - Einer wird kommen ( sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9ivvvu0D0A )). She is sent to entertain the boy-loving Aljoscha by his overly helpful ministers (who hope that she would spark some girl interest in him). After a round of gymnastic exercise with the (gay?) prince, it becomes obvious that Sonya isn't quite as male as he would like. Though the two hit it off so well that they decide to continue seeing each other in order to fool the ministers into believing that their plan is working (and so refraining from trying to plant more girls in Aljoscha's private space).
Predictably, of course, Aljoscha and Sonya end up falling in love with each other... with the little glitch that a Russian tsarevich couldn't very well choose a peasant dancer as his mate over a properly noble princess. If you'd like to know how it ends, there is an excellent DVD of this show starring Ostmann and Teresa Stratas that would make an operetta fan out of a bored rhinoceros.
The most often staged operettas of Lehár is surely Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow), a 3 acts about how having too much money can really complicate a girl's love life. Anna Glawari's deceased husband left her with millions that her government would very much like to not allow to leave the financially struggling country (in this case, the fictitious Pontivedria) should she remarries a foreigner. The government ministers' anxiety isn't alleviated by the fact that our merry widow is now entertaining lavishly and even singing in the garden with her guests (‘Vilja-Lied' (sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvDEavu26B4&fmt=18 )) at her Paris estate. The song is really a national favorite tale of Vilja the alluring wood nymph, detailing her flirtiness with lilting soprano that even the stiffest of Californian redwoods would find it hard not to sway to.
In Lehár's very historically and customarily incorrect operetta, Das Land des lächeln (The Land of Smiles), young Lisa is finding the (supposedly) Chinese custom that dictates that her Peking-born husband, Prince Souchong, has 3 other wives on the side, rather aggravating to her Viennese upbringing. Distressed by his wife's melancholy, Souchong serenades her with his loveliest tune, ‘Dein ist mein ganzes Herz' (sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8yk09X8YQo ), affirming that she is the only true object of his heart's desire. It is a strikingly Viennese aria with not even a slightest bit of oriental pretension... which is just as well, I suppose. It'd take a rather determinedly melancholic woman with ice floes clogging up her veins to not dissolve into an international melted goo by the end of this gallant tenor tune. Well... either that or you'd have to be a Viennese lass named Lisa, I suppose.
But when talking about operetta, the one name that really rules that spunkiest realm of this musical theatre subgenre has to be Jacques Offenbach. I'd run out of space in a hurry if I try to name all the catchy tunes penned by the German-French maestro, so I'll just name a tune from each of his three most popular operettas.... The most often performed of the bunch has to be the darkly psychedelic Les contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann), which features one of the most harmoniously mesmerizing soprano - mezzo-soprano duets, Belle nuit, o nuit d'amour (Barcarolle) (sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tZDfbV3UDo ) to open its 2nd Act. If the strings introduction to this thing imprints in your mind the image of a gondola sailing on the Venetian grand canal under a starry night, that's exactly where the scene opens into, right down to the shimmering lunar reflection on the water and the surreal static electricity that tingles your skin on such an outing.
Offenbach had an affinity for witty political satire, and his 1864 La belle Hélène is a good example of that. Set in ancient Sparta just before the leading up to the (in)famous Trojan War, this re-telling of the story of how Helen ran off with Paris to immense disapproval of her husband, Menelaus, and other Greek princes, is a superb satiric commentary on the social hypocrisy of the upper class during France's 2nd Republic. And no character is more prolific at rationalizing herself out of every impropriety than our beautiful Helen, who opens the 2nd Act of the operetta with the aria 'On me nomme Hélène la blonde' (sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYCmtFFmQMM ), a sultry little rant at the goddess Venus for all her romantic temptations.
Even a well worn myth like the story of Orpheus's attempt to retrieve his wife, Eurydice, from Hades isn't immune to Offenbach's sense of good fun. In his 1858 re-telling of the story, Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld), we find the couple not as enchanted with each other as tradition would expect. Orpheus' philandering is more than matched by Eurydice's affair with the handsome shepherd Aristaeus (who would turn out to be none other than the god Pluto in disguise). The lass runs off to Hades with her decidedly dark (and handsome) lover under the pretense of having been killed by snake bite, much to the delight of her husband who now considers himself free to chase any skirt he likes...
Alas, Public Opinion asserts herself and demands that the famous musician keeps up the appearance with a gallant attempt to rescue his wife from the land of the dead. Having granted Orpheus the conditional permission to descend into Hades for the 'noble' quest, however, Jupiter himself (under the disguise of a fly) scouts out Eurydice and finds her amazingly fetching (Fly Duet (sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi6SDINpeTw )). There is only one choice to choose between an ending that would please the Public and one that would please all the parties directly involved in the affair.... What that is, you'd have to find out for yourselves. I'd suggest either or both of the CD and DVD of this operetta from Opera National de Lyon conducted by Marc Minkowski in 1997 (the production shown in the sample clip). Be prepared for an intense exercise for all the muscles involved in laughing, though. You can burn 1000 calories watching this thing just from that!
The next two numbers are from Act II of Johann Strauss II (the Waltz King)'s most popular operetta, Die Fledermaus (The Bat), a hilariously convoluted farce on how factually slippery even the most cultured and well-mannered among us can be when truthfulness stands in the way of a night of good fun. Eisenstein lies to his wife, Rosalinde, in order to sneak off to Prince Orlofsky's notoriously fabulous party with his buddy, Falke. Their maid, Adele, lies that her aunt is gravely ill in order to attend the same bash. Everyone turns up at the same well boozed soiree disguised as someone else, which, of course ignites an epidemic of accurately mistaken identity... Adele laughs off Eisenstein (who identifies himself unconvincingly as Marquis Renard)'s recognition with her sparkling coloratura (aria - ‘Mein Herr Marquis' (sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5fpHCHlMPM ) before our hero himself loses his watch to the beautiful Countess he is trying to hit on (who would turn out to be none other than his wife, Rosalinde, herself).
With champagne flowing freely to good waltz music, everybody feel so comfortable with this fun-loving company that they sing a merry toast to brotherhood (‘Bruderlein und Schwesterlein' (sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK2J3rn70Ss ) before breaking out into a wild dance that doesn't stop until the clock strikes midnight...
If you want to know how it all ends, you'll have to get a recording of this show and find out for yourself because now we're moving on to the last number I'm touching on before running out of my page quota. It is a shame that Carl Zeller's Der Vogelhändler isn't staged more often considering all the lovely music this work contains.
Adam the bird seller and his post-woman fiancee, Christel, are set to marry when her attempt to secure the well-paying post of the royal director of the menagerie for him backfires and he is convinced that she is having an improper affair with the Prince Elector. Having been given a friendly bouquet of roses by the well meaning Marie (who is none other than the Princess Electress in disguise), Adam informs her that it is a Tyrollian custom that a person's heart always accompanies the roses she gives (duet - ‘Schenkt man sich Rosen in Tirol' (sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLTe82MewXM ) )... which naturally gives rise to more complication since Marie/Princess Electress has no intention of courting him.
And so you see, opera isn't all about blood and gore and helium-overdosed outsized sopranos dying of consumption or tuberculosis or other heart-breaking and suprisingly fatal disease. If that had been your impression of the music theatre genre before, why not give these lighter fares a try and see if they won't have you humming some operatic tunes by the end of the show.
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