Der Vogelhändler
Encyclopedia
Der Vogelhändler is an operetta
in three acts by Carl Zeller
with a libretto by Moritz West and Ludwig Held based on Varin and Biéville's Ce que deviennent les roses.
A tuneful operetta, Adam's act 2 aria Wie mein Ahn'l zwanzig Jahr was popularized by a recording by the soprano Elisabeth Schumann
.
in Vienna with the celebrated Viennese actor and singer, Alexander Girardi
, in the title role. It also played at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
in London in 1895 and at the Casino Theatre in New York in 1891 (as The Tyrolean).
Der Vogelhändler is a bucolic comedy, set in the 18th-century Rhineland, featuring two lovers, Adam, a handsome bird seller from the Tyrol
and Christel, the village postmistress. They, at cross-purposes, become involved in romantic complications at the Court of the reigning Prince. After a number of intrigues and misunderstandings, all ends happily.
The story is also a tale of people from different cultures and backgrounds learning to live together. The bird-seller comes from a culture quite different from that of the postal clerk. The ending, in which the Court joins the Tyroleans in dancing the Laendler and the bird seller greets his new neighbors in Tyrolean dialect, represents a triumph of cross-cultural integration and friendship.
Electress-Princess Marie arrives in disguise with Adelaide because she believes that the Elector is coming to the festival for no other reason than to be alone with the ceremonial maiden. Christel tells Adam that she plans to petition the Court to find him employment so that he can move here to forward their engagement. Adam, believing that a Tyrolean man bears the sole responsibility to fight his own fight to be able to support the wife he has chosen, asks her not to do this. Christel ends up in the pavilion with Stanislaus, believing him to be the Elector. Adam arrives at the festival to find the Hunt Master and the Burgomeister informing him that Christel is the ceremonial maiden and is therefore not in the crowd. Marie, hoping to save Adam from embarrassment, offers him the bouquet of roses which she has brought in case her plan to become the ceremonial maiden, thus catching her husband, inflagrante, works out. Adam, thinking of his own Tyrolen behavior code, somehow believes himself to have been promised to Marie and Christel to have been promised to the Elector. He publicly breaks off his engagement to Christel.
When the Hunt Master announces the wedding of Adelaide and Stanislaus, Christel identifies Stanislaus as the impostor. When Marie chides Stanisslaus for behavior unbecoming an officer and chooses Adam as the person to pass judgement because Adam was the one who suffered most because of his prank, Adam announces to the Court that he believes Stanislaus to have already made a legitimate offer of marriage to Christel. anislaus answers him in gentlemanly fashion by formally proposing to Christel. When Christel tells Adam that she is still promised only to him, Adam again formally rejects her, so Christel decides to accept Stanislaus' proposal. Adelaide, still unsure why there was an objection to her marriage because her groom had already promised himself to another, collapses.
In a warmth of cross-cultural friendship and understanding, the Tyroleans encourage the aristocrats of the Court to dance with them at the union of Adam and Christel while Adam extends to his new neighbors a warm greeting in his own Tyrolean dialect.
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
in three acts by Carl Zeller
Carl Zeller
Carl Adam Johann Nepomuk Zeller was an Austrian composer of operettas.Zeller was born in Sankt Peter in der Au, the only child of physician Johann Zeller and Maria Anna Elizabeth. Zeller's father died before his first birthday, after which his mother remarried Ernest Friedinger...
with a libretto by Moritz West and Ludwig Held based on Varin and Biéville's Ce que deviennent les roses.
A tuneful operetta, Adam's act 2 aria Wie mein Ahn'l zwanzig Jahr was popularized by a recording by the soprano Elisabeth Schumann
Elisabeth Schumann
Elisabeth Schumann was a German lyric soprano who sang in opera, operetta, oratorio, and lieder. She left a substantial legacy of recordings.-Career:...
.
Performance history
It was first performed on 10 January 1891 at the Theater an der WienTheater an der Wien
The Theater an der Wien is a historic theatre on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district of Vienna. Completed in 1801, it has seen the premieres of many celebrated works of theatre, opera, and symphonic music...
in Vienna with the celebrated Viennese actor and singer, Alexander Girardi
Alexander Girardi
Alexander Girardi was an Austrian] actor and tenor singer in operettas.- Career :Girardi was born in Graz; his father was the locksmith Andreas Girardi who had migrated to Graz from Cortina d'Ampezzo. Following the early death of his father, Alexander Girardi was raised by his stepfather who put...
, in the title role. It also played at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
in London in 1895 and at the Casino Theatre in New York in 1891 (as The Tyrolean).
Roles and role creators
| Role | Voice type Voice type A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types... |
Premiere cast, 10 January, 1891 (Conductor: ) |
|---|---|---|
| Adam, a birdseller from the Tyrol | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... /baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Alexander Girardi |
| Christel (Short for Christine), the post mistress | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Ilka Pálmay Ilka Pálmay Ilka Pálmay 21 September 1859 – 17 February 1945), born Ilona Petráss, was a Hungarian-born singer and actress. Pálmay began her stage career in Hungary by 1880, and by the early 1890s, she was creating leading roles in opera and operetta at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna... |
| Electress Marie | soprano | Ottilie Collin |
| Baroness Adelaide, lady at Court | ||
| Countess Mimi, lady at Court | ||
| Baron Weps, master of the hunt | tenor | Sebastian Stelzer |
| Count Stanislaus, his nephew, a guards officer | tenor | Rudolf del Zopp |
| Süffle, professor | tenor | |
| Würmchen, professor | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Hans Pokorny |
| Schneck, the village mayor | tenor | |
| Frau Nebel, the inn landlady | ||
| Jette, a waitress | ||
| Tyroleans, people of the Pfalz, country folk, society people | ||
Synopsis
The setting is historical fiction with artistic license, in 18th century lands around Heidelberg, which then constituted a district of the Holy Roman Empire governed by a Prince known as the Palatinate Elector. The story is reset in a fictitious estate of the husband of the Electress, Princess Marie.Der Vogelhändler is a bucolic comedy, set in the 18th-century Rhineland, featuring two lovers, Adam, a handsome bird seller from the Tyrol
County of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
and Christel, the village postmistress. They, at cross-purposes, become involved in romantic complications at the Court of the reigning Prince. After a number of intrigues and misunderstandings, all ends happily.
The story is also a tale of people from different cultures and backgrounds learning to live together. The bird-seller comes from a culture quite different from that of the postal clerk. The ending, in which the Court joins the Tyroleans in dancing the Laendler and the bird seller greets his new neighbors in Tyrolean dialect, represents a triumph of cross-cultural integration and friendship.
Act 1
The Burgermeister is at his wit's end because he cannot supply the Elector with the wild boar and the ceremonial maiden required to perform during an upcoming festival. A waitress suggests that Christel, the postal clerk, might be willing to volunteer to be the ceremonial maiden because she is promised to Adam, a bird-seller from the Tyrol, who cannot afford to move into her community to forward their engagement. Wishing to please Christel, he offers Weps a yellow adult bird from the Tyrol as a bribe toward being considered for an in-town work assignment. Meanwhile, Stanislaus, a guards officer, is attempting to get out of debt. When the Hunt Master finds out that the Elector will not be coming to the festival, he is greedy for the purse which the Elector has sent to use as an honorarium to pay the ceremonial maiden. Stanislau suggests that he impersonate the Elector.Electress-Princess Marie arrives in disguise with Adelaide because she believes that the Elector is coming to the festival for no other reason than to be alone with the ceremonial maiden. Christel tells Adam that she plans to petition the Court to find him employment so that he can move here to forward their engagement. Adam, believing that a Tyrolean man bears the sole responsibility to fight his own fight to be able to support the wife he has chosen, asks her not to do this. Christel ends up in the pavilion with Stanislaus, believing him to be the Elector. Adam arrives at the festival to find the Hunt Master and the Burgomeister informing him that Christel is the ceremonial maiden and is therefore not in the crowd. Marie, hoping to save Adam from embarrassment, offers him the bouquet of roses which she has brought in case her plan to become the ceremonial maiden, thus catching her husband, inflagrante, works out. Adam, thinking of his own Tyrolen behavior code, somehow believes himself to have been promised to Marie and Christel to have been promised to the Elector. He publicly breaks off his engagement to Christel.
Act 2
The Hunt Master, who is Stanislaus' uncle, wonders about a scandal about to break because Adam and Christel have arrived at the Palace at cross-purposes, while Stanislaus may still be impersonating the Elector. Christel manages to get permission from Marie to find Adam a job at Court. An examination is arranged for Adam's job interview, conducted by two comical professors. Adelaide asks the Hunt Master to arrange a marriage between herself and Stanislaus, whom she adores, Stanislaus, still pretending to be the Elector, continues to pursue Christel, who complains to Marie. Marie works out a scheme with Adam and Christel to identify the unknown individual who is still impersonating the Elector. She invites Adam to bring his Tyrolean friends to entertain at Court. Under the guise of proposing a toast, Adam manages to get around to all concerned to inform them that Christel will ring a small bell when she identifies the unknown individual who may still be impersonating the Elector.When the Hunt Master announces the wedding of Adelaide and Stanislaus, Christel identifies Stanislaus as the impostor. When Marie chides Stanisslaus for behavior unbecoming an officer and chooses Adam as the person to pass judgement because Adam was the one who suffered most because of his prank, Adam announces to the Court that he believes Stanislaus to have already made a legitimate offer of marriage to Christel. anislaus answers him in gentlemanly fashion by formally proposing to Christel. When Christel tells Adam that she is still promised only to him, Adam again formally rejects her, so Christel decides to accept Stanislaus' proposal. Adelaide, still unsure why there was an objection to her marriage because her groom had already promised himself to another, collapses.
Act 3
The Hunt Master, who has always adored Adelaide, sets things right by proposing to her and encouraging her to accept. Christel confronts Stanislaus and convinces both Adam and Stanislaus that women always have the upper hand in matters of love. Marie wonders why those below her in rank are finding true happiness while she can only fantasize about her own happiness.In a warmth of cross-cultural friendship and understanding, the Tyroleans encourage the aristocrats of the Court to dance with them at the union of Adam and Christel while Adam extends to his new neighbors a warm greeting in his own Tyrolean dialect.