EMMERICH KÁLMÁN The Carnival Fairy Die Faschingsfee (1917) Presented at the 2012 Ohio Light Opera as “Miss Springtime” THE OHIO LIGHT OPERA Steven Byess conductor Steven Daigle artistic director The Carnival Fairy Music................................Emmerich Kálmán PROGRAM NOTES ...............................Michael D. Miller English Translation...................Steven Daigle Original German Libretto: In 1908, word reached the A. M. Willner, Rudolf Österreicher Vienna operetta community of a Additional research...............Meredith Achey 25-year-old Hungarian composer— Imre Kálmán—and the success that OHIO LIGHT OPERA he was achieving in Budapest with Artistic Director........................Steven Daigle his military operetta Tatárjárás Conductor.................................Steven Byess (Tatar Invasion). Managers of the Stage Director..........................Steven Daigle prestigious Theater an der Wien Production Stage Manager...Katie Humphrey brought to Vienna both the Sound Design.............................Brian Rudell show—translated into German as CAST: Ein Herbstmanöver (presented and Countess Alexandra.....................Tara Sperry recorded for Albany by Ohio Light Viktor Ronai................................Grant Knox Opera as Autumn Maneuvers in Emmerich Kálmán (1882-1953) Hubert.........................................Jacob Allen 2002)—and the composer, renamed Emmerich. Lori.....................................Natalie Ballenger Never had a Budapest show become a big success in Vienna, Count Mereditt.......................Stephen Faulk and local music and theater critics saw little to suggest that Lubitschek.....................Christopher Cobbett this show was going to be an exception: “Kálmán consistently Duke Ottokar.............................Mark Snyder nurtures those pining melodies or those exciting rhythms that Dierks..........................Geoffrey Kannenberg his countrymen can listen to for hours, while they are boring Pappritz.................................... Nathan Brian on the Viennese ear after only five minutes.” And yet Ein Goetz................................Andrew Maughan Herbstmanöver became an overnight sensation and Vienna Merringer...............................Ezra Bershatsky audiences filled the theater for month after month. The show Mizzi..........................................Mary Griffith was exported to capitals around the world: New York, London, ENSEMBLE: Moscow, Argentina, Mexico, Australia. The course of Viennese Justin Berkovitz, Ezra Bershatsky, Sarah Best, Nathan operetta—just a few years earlier brought back to life with Brian, Ashley Close, Alexa Devlin, Malia French, Franz Lehár’s Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow)—was Mary Griffith, Kristina Hanford, Danielle McCormick again forever altered. Within a few years Emmerich Kálmán Knox, Benjamin Krumreig, Andrew Maughan, had dethroned Lehár as king of operetta in Vienna, a position Caroline Miller, Zachery Morris, Brooke Morrison, Emily Neill, Nathan Owen, Allison Schumaker, Kálmán maintained throughout most of the teen decade and Jarrett Smith, and Nicholas Wuehrmann. 1920s. In 1912, Kálmán achieved an even greater success with ❦ 2 ❦ Der Zigeunerprimás (known in America as Sari and recorded for Albany by OLO in 2001), his first real Viennese operetta, with the dances, songs and developed finales that the discriminating public de- manded. Whereas Lehár had operatic ambitions and assumed a more international posture in his musical stylings, with only occasional reminiscences of his Hungarian background, Kálmán never abandoned his roots in seamlessly juxtaposing, in his nearly twenty shows during a 45-year composing career, Kálmán Austrian postage stamp Fritzi Massary (1882-1969) the elegance and exhilaration of the Viennese waltz with the csárdás and gypsy rhythms of his homeland. Strauss-Theater and played to spellbound audiences In 1915, Kálmán wrote for the Budapest stage for a year. the last of his three operettas set to an original The following season, Berlin’s Metropol-Theater Hungarian libretto. Titled Zsuzsi kisasszony (Miss mounted the show for its star soprano Fritzi Massary, Susie), it centered on a village postmistress with for whom Kálmán rewrote significant portions of the singing ambitions, who is infatuated with an operatic score and turned it into a showcase for the diva. The tenor. She follows him to Budapest, sings with him, premiere, on September 18, 1918, was a stunning but eventually tires of big city life and returns home success—Massary was called for three encores of to her newspaperman boyfriend. In a break with the “Lieber Himmelvater, sei nicht bös” (“Dearest God usual pattern, producers from Broadway, rather than Above Us, Don’t Be Mad”), which has become one Vienna, secured the first international rights. In 1916, of the composer’s most performed and recognized with English lyrics by famed novelist P. G. Wode- melodies. It is this Berlin version of Die Faschingsfee, house, the show opened at the New Amsterdam given its American premiere in Steven Daigle’s English Theater as Miss Springtime, ran for 227 perfor- performance translation, that was presented by OLO mances and became the longest running book in summer 2012 as Miss Springtime and recorded musical of the year, featuring four interpolated songs here, more accurately titled The Carnival Fairy. by Jerome Kern. Spurred by this Broadway success, Kálmán sought Producer’s Note: a German-language libretto for which he could adapt The entire musical score from the acclaimed 2012 OLO his own score of Zsuzsi for Vienna. Librettists Rudolf summer production is recorded here, with a truncated Österreicher and Arthur Willner answered the call: version of the spoken dialogue. For further information about the Kálmán full performance edition, please the team’s Die Faschingsfee (The Carnival Fairy) contact OLO online at ohiolightopera.org or by opened on September 21, 1917 at the Johann- email at [email protected]. ❦ 3 ❦ PLOT SYNOPSIS ACT II. Weeks later, Viktor’s prize money has been mysteriously restored. He has finished a painting of ACT I. Artists and revellers gather at a Munich his unknown Carnival Fairy. She reappears and bar to celebrate Carnival. Viktor Ronai, a painter, announces he has won a 50,000 mark com- confides to Hubert it is she who secretly paid the mission from Count Mereditt. The elegant but commission. Viktor is delighted to see her and shows her the portrait. Mereditt arrives, denying maverick Hungarian Countess Alexandra enters the money came from him, but to save face, he breathlessly; she is masked and has been co- gives another 50,000 marks to Hubert for Viktor. opted by the revellers as their impromptu When Hubert asks Alexandra to hold the cash, Carnival Queen, “Miss Springtime.” Engaged to wed Duke Ottokar and supervised by his cousin, Lori sees and misunderstands. She reports this to the bon vivant Hubert, Alexandra is instantly Ronai who, in a rage, tears up the painting. The arrival of Duke Ottokar only complicates matters. attracted to Ronai. They explore their mutual attraction, while she maintains her in cognito. ACT III. A fancy Munich hotel. Hubert has patched Meantime, Hubert’s artist model girlfriend Lori things up with Lori and reveals to the humbled objects to all the attention being paid the Ronai Alexandra’s true generosity. She cannot mysterious Alexandra, especially by Hubert. easily forgive him, but dictates a haughty letter Count Mereditt arrives, flirts with Alexandra, which Hubert re-writes into a love letter. The Duke inciting the anger of Ronai, who doesn’t actually again enters, is convinced of Alexandra’s true know his patron. Mereditt withdraws the prize feelings, and generously offers her Ronai’s hand and Alexandra is horrified. which she accepts to the delight of all. FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR For almost 35 years The little of everything: a well-known Wooster, its community and Ohio Light Opera has been and lesser-known Gilbert and nearly 600,000 patrons who dedicated to producing, promo- Sullivan, a Viennese operetta, a have championed the company's ting and preserving the best of French operetta, an American dedication to operetta have given the traditional operetta reper- operetta and a revival of a long- OLO a reputation that reaches toire. In any summer season, forgotten work that is given a internationally. In no small way, 20,000 patrons come to hear much-deserved rebirth for an Albany Records has added to the and see more than sixty perfor- appreciative audience. This CD company’s success. The company mances of seven productions on set will hopefully give the oper- and the operetta art form are the beautiful campus of The Col- etta aficionado a taste of what indebted to John Ostendorf and lege of Wooster in Ohio. These makes this company unique. Albany for their commitment. shows offer the operetta fan a The support of the College of Steven Daigle ❦ 4 ❦ The Carnival Fairy Overture Track 1 ACT ONE A Bohemian bar, The Green Paintbrush, at Carnival time, 1915. Carnival Music Track 2 Munich Carnival REVELLERS (heard from the street) revellers at The La-la-la! (The mood turns plaintive.) Green Paint Brush bar. Scene Track 3 VIKTOR RONAI (a Munich painter, I could embrace the whole world! It’s how we live from day to day. enters with revellers and friends) A drink!! ALL Hello, my Bohemian brethren! ALL Bonded by Bohemian pride, ALL A drink!! The brotherhood can’t be denied. Viktor! RONAI RONAI RONAI Dance through the night If you lack imagination, Friends! You’ll