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 Victor Varin's and de Biéville's Ce que deviennent les roses (1857).
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).
The act 2 aria "Wie mein Ahn'l zwanzig Jahr" was recorded by the soprano Elisabeth Schumann.
The setting is historical fiction with artistic license, in 18th century lands around Heidelberg, which then constituted a district of the Holy Roman Empire governed by a Prince known as the Palatinate Elector. The story is reset in a fictitious estate of the husband of the Electress, Princess Marie.
Der Vogelhändler is a bucolic comedy, set in the 18th-century Rhineland, 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.
The Burgermeister is at his wit's end because he cannot supply the Elector with the wild boar and the ceremonial maiden required to perform during an upcoming festival. A waitress suggests that Christel, the postal clerk, might be willing to volunteer to be the ceremonial maiden because she is promised to Adam, a bird-seller from the Tyrol, who cannot afford to move into her community to forward their engagement. Wishing to please Christel, Adam offers Weps a yellow adult bird from the Tyrol as a bribe toward being considered for an in-town work assignment. Meanwhile, Stanislaus, a guards officer, is attempting to get out of debt. When the Hunt Master finds out that the Elector will not be coming to the festival, he is greedy for the purse which the Elector has sent to use as an honorarium to pay the ceremonial maiden. Stanislau suggests that he impersonate the Elector.
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