Operetta Geek, Part 2
Operetta originated in Europe in the middle of the 19th century. (I recently
found a website that lists 99 composers of operettas. Nearly all of them
are 19th-century Europeans.) The operettas of Jacques Offenbach (with libretti
by Hector Cremieux, and Ludovic Halevy) are satires taken from Greek mythology
and applied to the age of Napoleon III (who was both emperor and president
of the Second Republic). In
Orphee aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld) Orpheus and Eurydice
are not ever-loving mates. Eurydice hates Orpheus’ music. She runs away
with Pluto, who is in disguise as a shepherd, and it’s only a character
named Opinion Publique (who tells us she’s a newer, better version of the
old Greek chorus) that persuades him to go to the underworld to retrieve
her. Down in Pluto’s realm, Eurydice is seduced by Jupiter in disguise
as a fly, and of course Orpheus fails in his mission. Here’s the “
Infernal Galop” that ends the show. You’ll recognize it as the famous
“can-can” music. That’s Jupiter in white in the center, and Eurydice in
black in disguise as a bacchante. I watched this operetta the night I came
home from the hospital after my adventure with the cat bite and five antibiotics.
Another Offenbach operetta is
La Belle Helene, in which Paris seduces Helen of Troy. The final
act is set at Nauplia, where the Greek armies are gathering to invade Troy.
Here in a modern production are Agamemnon, Menelaus (the chubby guy in
the bathrobe—no wonder Helen ran off with Paris), and Calchus singing the
“
Patriotic Trio.” (The guy with the good legs is Laurent Naouri
as Agamemnon.) Thanks to my DVDs of Offenbach operettas, I can identify
half a dozen French opera singers. Is that weird, or what?
Probably the most famous of the so-called Viennese operettas (it’s a style,
not a setting) is
The Merry Widow by the Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehar and
Leo Stein and Victor Leon. It’s set in Paris at the Pontevedrian Embassy
(but in some translations Pontevedra is called Marsovia—I guess one imaginary
kingdom was a good as another). It’s basically about Anna (or Hannah),
the fabulously rich widow (she’s worth 50 million), and Prince Danilo,
a poor nobleman now working as a bored civil servant. They were in love
when he was rich and she was poor, but he was forbidden to marry her, so
she married a rich old man who conveniently died and left her the 50 million.
Now Danilo spends his time at
Maxim’s (the famous bistro that the handsome hero of
Gigi also visits) drinking and flirting with the
grisettes(a word I don't need to translate, do I?). Love wins out,
of course, and Anna and Danilo are reunited. Meanwhile, the ambassador’s
very young wife is carrying on with a Parisian gigolo (the show’s tenor).
Here’s Beverly Sills singing one of the other famous songs. It’s about
Vilja, who is either a “witch of the wood” or a “nymph of the wood,” depending
on the translation. And, yes, operetta properly requires operatic voices.
My favorite version is the
San Francisco Opera production, whose art nouveau sets and costumes
are as gorgeous as the music. I find the newer production from the Met
starring Renee Fleming and Nathan Gunn less fun.
The other most famous composer of European operettas was Rudolf Friml,
who gave us
The Firefly,
The Vagabond King, and
Rose Marie. Jeanette MacDonald starred in a 1937 movie titled
The Firefly, but except for a couple songs like “
The Donkey Serenade" --be sure to listen to this one-- sung by Allan
Jones, it has little connection with the stage version.The song made Jones'
career. He sang it for the rest of his life.
In
The Vagabond King, the historical French poet and “king of thieves,”
Francois Villon, trades places with King Louis XI, the Spider King. Paramount
made two movies of it. In the 1930 movie, Dennis King plays Villon and
Jeanette (her second movie) plays Katherine. King’s acting style is Victorian-declamatory,
but he sure can sing. (And there’s an actor in this movie who was born
in 1853!) The 1956 movie is truly awful. Villon is played by an extremely
loud Maltese tenor named Oreste. (It was his only movie.) Friml wrote half
a dozen new songs for this movie; he shoulda stayed home.
Friml’s most famous operetta is
Rose Marie. Although the 1936 movie almost completely changes the
operetta’s plot, it’s still fun to watch. Opera star Rose Marie (Jeannette
MacDonald) is out in the Canadian wilderness searching, with the help of
Mountie Nelson Eddy, for her outlaw brother (James Stewart in his first
movie).Here are Nelson and Jeanette singing the famous “
Indian Love Call.”
In 1959, Rick Besoyan wrote a glorious parody of all these old-fashioned
operettas. In
Little Mary Sunshine, Mary sells cookies. Here’s the “
Colorado Love Call,” a spot-on parody. (Yes, that’s the same Patricia
Routledge from
Keeping Up Appearances. You didn’t know she could sing, did you.
She was also in the famous Joseph Papp
Pirates of Penzance, starring Kevin Kline, Rex Smith, and
Linda Ronstadt.
Next month: Part 3 of Operetta Geekery.
