Der Vogelhändler
Der Vogelhändler (The Bird Seller) 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 Ahnl zwanzig Jahr was popularized by a recording by the soprano Elisabeth Schumann.
Performance history
It was first performed on 10 January 1891 at the Theater an der Wien 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).
Roles and role creators
- Adam, a birdseller from the Tyrol tenor Alexander Girardi
- Christel, the post mistress soprano Ilka Palmay
- 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 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 which were actually the feudal estates of the Hapsburg Counts of Tyrol and the Hapsburg Counts of Rhineland-Pfaltz. The story is reset in a fictitious estate of the husband of Princess Marie-Louise.
Der Vogelhändler 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, 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.
References
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