Wiener Blut (Viennese Blood) is an 1899 operetta named after Johann Strauss II's eponymous 1873 waltz. It was made with Strauss' approval, but without his participation. Its score reuses music he wrote for other works along with some music by his brother Josef Strauss; [1] the job of compilation went to Adolf Müller. Its libretto is by Victor Léon and Leo Stein. The setting is the Congress of Vienna. Strauss may have seen a draft of the work, but he died a few months before its 26 October premiere at Vienna's Carltheater.
Franz Jauner produced the costly premiere anticipating great commercial success. But Wiener Blut ran for only thirty performances before making way for Sidney Jones' critically acclaimed The Geisha ; in February of the following year Jauner shot himself at his desk in the Carltheater, facing bankruptcy. Five years later, however, when the Theater an der Wien staged a slightly modified Wiener Blut, it caught the public ear, and it has retained a place in the repertory ever since.
In 2007 English Touring Opera mounted a concert production of Wiener Blut at venues throughout the United Kingdom.
Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 26 October 1899 (Conductor: - ) |
---|---|---|
Balduin, Count Zedlau | tenor | Julius Spielmann |
Franziska Cagliari | soprano | Ilona Szoyer |
Prince Ypsheim-Gindelbach | baritone | Eduard Steinberger |
Gabriele, Countess Zedlau | soprano | Marie Merker |
Josef | baritone | Louis Treumann |
Kagler | bass | Anton Julus |
Pepi Pleininger | soprano | Betty Stojan |
In 1942 the operetta was adapted into the film Vienna Blood , which became one of the most financially successful films of the Third Reich. [2]
Johann Baptist Strauss II, also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son, was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas as well as a violinist. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century. Some of Johann Strauss's most famous works include "The Blue Danube", "Kaiser-Walzer", "Tales from the Vienna Woods", "Frühlingsstimmen", and the "Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka". Among his operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron are the best known.
The Vienna New Year's Concert is an annual concert of classical music performed by the Vienna Philharmonic on the morning of New Year's Day in Vienna, Austria. The concert occurs at the Musikverein at 11:15. The orchestra performs the same concert programme on 30 December, 31 December, and 1 January but only the last concert is regularly broadcast on radio and television.
Carl Michael Ziehrer was an Austrian composer. In his lifetime, he was one of the fiercest rivals of the Strauss family; most notably Johann Strauss II and Eduard Strauss.
Wiener Blut Op. 354 is a waltz by Johann Strauss II first performed by the composer on 22 April 1873. The new dedication waltz was to celebrate the wedding of the Emperor Franz Joseph I's daughter Archduchess Gisela Louise Maria and Prince Leopold of Bavaria. However, the waltz was also chiefly noted by Strauss' biographers as the début of Strauss with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra where for many years, the Philharmonic had dismissed any association with the 'Waltz King' as it had not wished to be associated with mere 'light' or 'pops' music. The festival ball celebrating the event was held at the Musikverein Hall which is the venue for the present day Neujahrskonzert.
Neu Wien , opus 342, is a waltz written by Johann Strauss II in 1870 and dedicated to Nicolaus Dumba (1830-1900), who was a fervent patron of Arts and was the Chairman of the Wiener Männergesang-Verein and Vice-President of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien.
Wiener Blut may refer to:
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