Vogelhändler, Der
Operette in zwei Akten und einem Nachspiel
Composer: Zeller, Carl
Version: Musikalische Einrichtung von Wilhelm Wilke
Carl Zeller’s most popular and successful operetta, Der Vogelhändler (The Birdseller) is a bucolic comedy set in the 18th-century Rhineland (Bavaria), 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, the ending - in which the Court joins the Tyroleans in dancing the previously unfamiliar Laendler and the bird seller greets his new neighbors in Tyrolean dialect - represents a triumph of cross-cultural integration and friendship. At its premiere on January 10 1891, Zeller’s fourth stage work was a spectacular success, at a time when operetta had begun to fade from public favour. Der Vogelhändler renewed Vienna’s love affair with the genre, and the work’s success was repeated in many other European capitals, and in North and South America. Among the best-known and most inventive musical moments are the heroine’s bouncy Ich bin die Christel von der Post and the duet Schenkt Man sich Rosen in Tirol (When One Gives Roses in Tyrol).
Format
V/S C/P Lib O/S
Publisher
JW