Gräfin Dubarry
| Operas by Carl Millöcker |
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Gräfin Dubarry is an operetta in three acts by Carl Millöcker to a German libretto by F. Zell and Richard Genée. The story concerns Madame du Barry, the mistress of Louis XV, King of France.
Performance history
The operetta had its premiere on 31 October 1879 at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna.
Die Dubarry
A radically new version of the work, in nine scenes under the title Die Dubarry, was prepared by Theo Mackeben with music from the original Gräfin Dubarry as well as other works, and a new text was written by Paul Knepler, Ignaz Michael Welleminsky and Hans Martin Cremer. This was first given at the Admiralspalast in Berlin on 14 August 1931. According to Andrew Lamb, the production introduced "alien structures and orchestration" compared with the original.[1] This was filmed as The Loves of Madame Dubarry in 1935, and as The Dubarry toured the UK in 1932 starring Binnie Hale and played at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1957 with Anny Ahlers, Helen Haye and Mimi Crawford. An EP was released by Anny Ahlers with the songs "I Give My Heart", "The Dubarry", "Beauty", "Happy Little Jeanne" and "Today".
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 31 October 1879 (Conductor: Carl Millöcker[2]) |
Die Dubarry cast, 14 August 1931 (Conductor: Theo Mackeben [3]) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marie Jeanne Bécu, a milliner, later Comtesse Dubarry | soprano | Gitta Alpar | |
| René Lavallery, a painter | tenor | Egon Brosig | |
| Margot, a milliner | soprano | Edith Schollwer | |
| Marquis de Brissac, her friend | tenor | ||
| Comte Dubarry | baritone | Schnell | |
| King Louis XV | baritone | ||
| Duc de Choiseul, Chief Minister | spoken | ||
| Prince Soubise | spoken | ||
| Duc de Lazun | spoken | ||
| Radix de St. Foix | spoken | ||
| Baron Chamard | spoken | ||
| Lebell | spoken | ||
| Marschallin von Luxembourg | spoken | ||
| Lucille | spoken | ||
| Pierre | spoken | ||
| Madame Labille | spoken | ||
| Marianne Verrières | spoken | ||
| Claude Verrières | spoken | ||
| Abbé | spoken | ||
| Neighbour | spoken | ||
| Attendants, companions, servants, milliners, people of Paris (chorus) | |||
Synopsis
The story is set in Paris and Versailles in 1764.
Film versions
After the 1935 British film The Loves of Madame Dubarry, a German film version was made in Germany in 1951 by Georg Wildhagen, with Sari Barabas, Mathieu Ahlersmeyer, Willy Fritsch, Albert Lieven and Walter Müller.
References
- ↑ Lamb, Andrew (1992), 'Millöcker, Carl' in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London) ISBN 0-333-73432-7
- ↑ Amadeus Almanac, accessed 1 July 2008
- ↑ Amadeus Almanac, accessed 1 July 2008
Some of the information in this article is taken from the German Wikipedia article.