The Count of Luxembourg - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Count of Luxembourg is an operetta

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 two acts with English lyrics and libretto by Basil Hood

Basil Hood

Basil Willett Charles Hood was a British librettist and lyricist, perhaps best known for writing the libretti of half a dozen Savoy Operas and for his English adaptations of operettas, including The Merry Widow. He embarked on a career in the British army, writing theatrical pieces in his spare...

and Adrian Ross

Adrian Ross

For the NFL player see Adrian Ross Arthur Reed Ropes , better known under the pseudonym Adrian Ross, was a prolific writer of lyrics, contributing songs to more than sixty British musical comedies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...

, music by Franz Lehár

Franz Lehár

Franz Lehár was an Austrian-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow .-Biography:...

, based loosely on the German original, entitled "Der Graf von Luxemburg

Der Graf von Luxemburg

Der Graf von Luxemburg is an operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár to German libretto by Alfred Willner, Robert Bodanzky, and Leo Stein. It premiered at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, on 12 November 1909 and was an immediate success...

", which had premiered in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

in 1909.

The Count of Luxembourg opened at Daly's Theatre

Daly's Theatre

Daly's Theatre was a theatre in the City of Westminster. It was located at 2 Cranbourn Street, just off Leicester Square. It opened on 27 June 1893, and was demolished in 1937.-Early years:...

in London on 20 May 1911 and ran for 240 performances. It starred Lily Elsie

Lily Elsie

Lily Elsie was a popular English actress and singer during the Edwardian era, best known for her starring role in the hit London premiere of Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow....

, Huntley Wright

Huntley Wright

Huntley Wright was an English stage and film actor, comedian, dancer and singer, best known for creating roles in many important Edwardian musical comedies....

, W. H. Berry

W. H. Berry

William Henry Berry , always billed as W. H. Berry, was an English comic actor. After learning his craft in pierrot and concert entertainments, he was spotted by the actor-manager George Grossmith Jr., and appeared in a series of musical comedies in comic character roles. His greatest success was...

and Bertram Wallis

Bertram Wallis

Bertram Wallis was an English actor and singer known for his performances in plays, musical comedies and operettas in the early 20th century, first as leading men and then in character roles. He also later appeared in several film roles.-Early years:Wallis was born in London...

. The operetta also had a good run at the New Amsterdam Theatre

New Amsterdam Theatre

The New Amsterdam Theatre is a Broadway theater located at 214 West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Theatre District of Manhattan, New York City, off of Times Square...

in New York in 1912.

There was an American silent film version in 1926.

Synopsis

The Grand Duke may not marry Angela, with whom he is infatuated, unless she bears a title. He therefore arranges for the penniless spendthrift, Count René, to marry a lady whose face he is not to see, and to agree to a divorce in three months. For this the Count receives the sum of £20,000 (half a million francs). At the wedding ceremony, the Count and his mystery bride are separated by a screen – but later they meet and fall in love. Little knowing that they are already husband and wife, they believe their romance is hopeless. But all ends happily.

Hood wrote about rewriting the libretto of the operetta for British audiences:

"...there are not, I think, thirty lines of dialogue in the English adaptation which are actually translated from the German; the action of the play has been constructed in two acts, instead of the original three; while the entire part of Brissard, played by Mr. W. H. Berry

W. H. Berry

, has been invented and introduced, and, as a consequence, new situations and scenes have arisen which do not exist in the original play. Three of four minor characters also have been created to help the construction of the new effects, such as the opening of Act I, and the dialogue scene towards the end of Act II, where Angele and the Count each discovers the identity of the other, through the jealous interference of Monsieur de Tresac. This particular episode was in the original treated musically, with a full stage, being the subject of the Finale of Act II; and in doing away with the third act it became necessary, of course, to sacrifice this Finale and to approach and develop the dramatic moments of the recognition by different methods, in spoken dialogue...."

Roles and London cast

Count René of Luxembourg – Bertram Wallis
Bertram Wallis
Bertram Wallis was an English actor and singer known for his performances in plays, musical comedies and operettas in the early 20th century, first as leading men and then in character roles. He also later appeared in several film roles.-Early years:Wallis was born in London...
Registrar – Fred Kaye
Jean Baptiste (A Waiter) – Willie Warde
Willie Warde
Willie Warde was an English actor, dancer, singer and choreographer. The son of a dancer, his first theatre work was with a dance company. He was engaged to arrange dances for London productions and was later cast as a comic actor in musical theatre...
Mons. De Trésac – Alec Fraser
Mons. De Valmont – Paul Plunket
Pelegrin, Mentschikoff, Paulovitch (The Grand Duke's Attendants) – Frank Perfitt, Ridgwell Cullum, C. Coleman
Lavigne, Boulanger (Artists) – G. Whitehead, G. Wilson
Brissard (An Artist) – W. H. Berry
W. H. Berry
William Henry Berry , always billed as W. H. Berry, was an English comic actor. After learning his craft in pierrot and concert entertainments, he was spotted by the actor-manager George Grossmith Jr., and appeared in a series of musical comedies in comic character roles. His greatest success was...
The Grand Duke Rutzinov – Huntley Wright
Huntley Wright
Huntley Wright was an English stage and film actor, comedian, dancer and singer, best known for creating roles in many important Edwardian musical comedies....
Juliette (A Model) – May de Sousa
Countess Kokozeff – Gladys Homfrey
Mimi – May Marton
Lisette (Maid to Angèle Didier) – Kitty Hanson
Angèle Didier – Lily Elsie
Lily Elsie
Lily Elsie was a popular English actress and singer during the Edwardian era, best known for her starring role in the hit London premiere of Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow....

Musical numbers

Act I – Brissard's Studio, Paris

No. 1 – Opening Chorus – "Carnival! Make the most of Carnival! Let the bottle pass who has got the wine..."
No. 2 – Song – Brissard and Chorus – "Anyone who knows me could not suppose me gloomy, or glum, or sad! ..."
No. 3 – Song – Juliette and Chorus – "Pierrot and Pierrette (just like you and me) had their little supper set..."
No. 4 – Entrance Chorus and Song – René – "Carnival! Make the most of Carnival! ..."
No. 4a – First Exit – "So lend it, spend it, end it, and out of the window send it..."
No. 4b – Second Exit – "So lend it, spend it, end it, and out of the window send it..."
No. 5 – Duet – Juliette and Brissard – "Tonight we'll have a special boom, a Carnival for two! ..."
No. 6 – Song – Grand Duke and Attendants – "I am in love, I cannot contradict it! ...."
No. 7 – Scene and Air – Angèle – "Someone's here to marry me, and I don't know who! ..."
No. 8 – Duet – Angèle and Grand Duke – "You will be a Royal Highness! ..."
No. 9 – Quintet – René, Grand Duke and Attendants – "Your cheque upon Coutts's and Co. ..."
No. 10 – Finale Act I – "Fair Countess, may I wish that now you'll be happy for ever? ..."

Act II – Reception Hall at the Grand Duke Rutzinov's, Paris

No. 11 – Opening Scene and Dance
No. 12 – Entrance Chorus and Solo – Angèle – "Hail, Angèle, our nightingale, hail to the lovely Diva! ..."
No. 12a – Fanfare
No. 12b – Stage Music
No. 13 – Song – Grand Duke – "Once a Butterfly came flutt'ring to a tender little Rose! ..."
No. 14 – Song – René – "Ah, the perfume, how it lingers! What a dainty little glove..."
No. 15 – Duet – Juliette and Brissard – "Now if you really mean to mix in high society..."
No. 16 – Duet – Angèle and René – "What are you doing? Are you mad? You must have lost your senses! ..."
No. 17 – Russian Dance – Kukuska
No. 18 – Song – Grand Duke and Girls – "Since first I burst upon the scene in beauty bright and glorious..."
No. 19 – Duet – Angèle and René – "Are you going to dance? ... No, merci, mon ami? ... May I not have a chance? ..."
No. 20 – Quartet – Juliette, Mimi, Grand Duke, Brissard and Girls – "A man is a boy while he can enjoy his whole life long..."
No. 21 – Finale Act II – Angèle and René – "Say not love is a dream, say not that hope is vain..."

External links

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