Die Faschingsfee
Operetta
by Alfred Maria Willner and Rudolf Österreicher
Music by Emmerich Kálmán
Text version for the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz by Josef E Köpplinger
Adapted version
Premiered February 16, 2017, Alte Kongresshalle
Age recommendation: 12 years and above
Whilst the First World War rages outside, Munich's Bohemians celebrate the carnival season in 1917 as a "dance on the volcano" in the artists' cafe of Leopoldine Brandlmayer. There are actually two reasons to celebrate, as the painter Viktor Ronai has just been awarded first prize in a competition which is worth 10,000 marks! When the revellers are then joined by an unknown beauty, to whom Viktor feels almost magically drawn, his happiness could not be greater. Naturally, he defends his carnival fairy from the clumsy advances of Count Mereditt, who is out for a romantic encounter on this carnival night. The only problem is that it is this very Count who has provided the prize money that Viktor was intending to collect the next morning, and who now indignantly withholds it. When his carnival fairy then disappears into the night, Viktor believes his happiness has been destroyed ... Will the tide turn for him? And who is this mysterious carnival fairy?
In 1915, the Hungarian composer Emmerich Kálmán had probably his greatest hit with audiences with »Die Csárdásfürstin« in the operetta capital of Vienna. For his next piece, which was to be presented on stage for the first time in the Johann-Strauß-Theater in Vienna on 21 September 1917, Kálmán and his lyricists Alfred Maria Willner and Rudolf Österreicher returned to a work which had already been successfully first performed in Budapest and had even conquered New York's Broadway: »Zsuzsi kisasszony« (»Fräulein Susi«) or »Miss Springtime« (»Fräulein Frühling«) thus became »Die Faschingsfee« for Viennese audiences during the War. The trio of authors conceived a plot set during the carnival season in Munich, which, as the Bavarian and Austro-Hungarian monarchies move towards their demise, calls on everyone to flout rigid class conventions and follow their hearts instead. Whilst it was very successfully turned into a star vehicle for Fritzi Massary in Berlin, »Die Faschingsfee«, which with hits such as »Heut’ flieg ich aus«, »Liebling, du mein Liebling« and »Lieber Himmelvater, sei nicht bös«, was the absolute equal of the »Csárdásfürstin« musically, was given its first Munich performance at the Gärtnerplatztheater in 1918 and made its triumphal way around the world in the years that followed. To mark the 100th birthday of the work, Josef E Köpplinger and his team unearthed the original carnival fun that has been forgotten over the decades and breathed new life into it just in time for the 2017 Munich carnival season.
Cast on 16/02/2017
Choir and Ballet of the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz
Orchestra of the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz
Performances
Die musikalische Gesamtaufnahme der Münchner Fassung von »Die Faschingsfee« ist hier als CD erhältlich. Im Jahr 2019 wurde die Aufnahme mit dem „Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik“ ausgezeichnet.
Balzen beim Walzen