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Siegfried plays the stock market
Straus's "The Merry Niebelungs' by Concert Operetta Theater
Steve Cohen
Whether you love Wagner or loathe him, you'll probably enjoy Oscar Straus's 1904 operetta parody, Die Lustigen Nibelungen (The Merry Niebelungs).
The piece is a send-up of Wagner's Nibelungen Ring, especially the plot from Götterdämmerung, in which Günther, Hagen and Brünnhilde agree to kill Siegfried. (For more of the gory details, click here.)
The Merry Niebelungs mocked German militarism, big business and the stock market. Siegfried sings a catchy march at the start of the second act, burlesquing Kaiser Wilhelm's claim that Germany was world's most powerful empire. The 1904 librettist, Fritz Oliven was prescient enough to dramatize precious-metal investments, insider trading and financial bailouts in a script that has astonishing relevance today. Happily, its first complete English translation, premiered this week by Philadelphia's Concert Operetta Theater, is an American translation, so the colloquialisms flow trippingly off the tongue.
Thus when characters remark that Siegfried, having slain a giant and a dragon, stashed all of his gold in the Rhine River. Siegfried corrects them: "Not in the banks of the Rhine. I put my gold in the Rhein Bank." Instead of asking a forest bird to foretell the future of mankind, this modern Siegfried asks a canary, "How will precious metals trade tomorrow?"
Preparing for World War I
The Merry Nibelungs was attacked by Wagner devotees as sacrilegious and by German nationalists who claimed that Straus's piece undermined confidence in the institutions that were necessary for Germany's expansion. At that time, German industries were borrowing heavily in preparation for what became the First World War, and consequently the stock market was booming. In The Merry Nibelungs, a stock market crash destroys most of Siegfried's wealth (but it also destroys Günther's incentive to kill Siegfried for his now greatly devalued gold).
These attacks prevented The Merry Nibelungs from receiving additional bookings in Germany and Austria. Oscar Straus went on to greater success with nostalgic romantic shows like A Waltz Dream and The Chocolate Soldier. He later moved to America and wrote movie musicals, including One Hour with You, directed by George Cukor and Ernst Lubitsch and starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. The Merry Nibelungs itself has since enjoyed newfound success in its original language in Vienna and in Germany.
The large cast was ideal, including Michael Ashby (one of the co-authors of the libretto) as Siegfried, Cynthia Cook as Brünnhilde, Darlene Kelsey, Daniel Lickteig, Edward Albert, Margaret Mezzacappa, Jason Switzer, Thomas Faracco and Patricia Vigil. The music director and pianist, José Meléndez, drilled the cast so they were musically precise and the lyrics were understandable, which is a major accomplishment. Dan Pantano, the company's artistic director and co-translator of the script, was amusing in two cameo appearances. This American production will make its New York debut on October 24 at Merkin Hall with the same cast.
What's an operetta?
Rather than copy Wagner's musical style, The Merry Nibelungs often resembles Gilbert and Sullivan, with patter songs similar to "I am the captain of the Pinafore" and "I am the very model of a modern major general." These alternate with catchy Viennese tunes, like a Rheingold waltz that appears in the first act and returns in the finale. A happy ending was necessary, as the cast of The Merry Nibelungs tell us: "Siegfried can't die because this is an operetta."
So what, after all, is the difference between opera and operetta? Some people think it's operetta when dialogue is spoken instead of sung. But that would make The Magic Flute, The Tales of Hoffman and Carmen operettas, which no one holds to be the case. As to the theory that happy endings make an operetta, what about The Barber of Seville and The Magic Flute's cheerful conclusions? This issue can't be easily resolved.
It reminds me of Justice Potter Stewart 's comment in the Supreme Court 1964 case about pornography: "I know it when I see it."
The piece is a send-up of Wagner's Nibelungen Ring, especially the plot from Götterdämmerung, in which Günther, Hagen and Brünnhilde agree to kill Siegfried. (For more of the gory details, click here.)
The Merry Niebelungs mocked German militarism, big business and the stock market. Siegfried sings a catchy march at the start of the second act, burlesquing Kaiser Wilhelm's claim that Germany was world's most powerful empire. The 1904 librettist, Fritz Oliven was prescient enough to dramatize precious-metal investments, insider trading and financial bailouts in a script that has astonishing relevance today. Happily, its first complete English translation, premiered this week by Philadelphia's Concert Operetta Theater, is an American translation, so the colloquialisms flow trippingly off the tongue.
Thus when characters remark that Siegfried, having slain a giant and a dragon, stashed all of his gold in the Rhine River. Siegfried corrects them: "Not in the banks of the Rhine. I put my gold in the Rhein Bank." Instead of asking a forest bird to foretell the future of mankind, this modern Siegfried asks a canary, "How will precious metals trade tomorrow?"
Preparing for World War I
The Merry Nibelungs was attacked by Wagner devotees as sacrilegious and by German nationalists who claimed that Straus's piece undermined confidence in the institutions that were necessary for Germany's expansion. At that time, German industries were borrowing heavily in preparation for what became the First World War, and consequently the stock market was booming. In The Merry Nibelungs, a stock market crash destroys most of Siegfried's wealth (but it also destroys Günther's incentive to kill Siegfried for his now greatly devalued gold).
These attacks prevented The Merry Nibelungs from receiving additional bookings in Germany and Austria. Oscar Straus went on to greater success with nostalgic romantic shows like A Waltz Dream and The Chocolate Soldier. He later moved to America and wrote movie musicals, including One Hour with You, directed by George Cukor and Ernst Lubitsch and starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. The Merry Nibelungs itself has since enjoyed newfound success in its original language in Vienna and in Germany.
The large cast was ideal, including Michael Ashby (one of the co-authors of the libretto) as Siegfried, Cynthia Cook as Brünnhilde, Darlene Kelsey, Daniel Lickteig, Edward Albert, Margaret Mezzacappa, Jason Switzer, Thomas Faracco and Patricia Vigil. The music director and pianist, José Meléndez, drilled the cast so they were musically precise and the lyrics were understandable, which is a major accomplishment. Dan Pantano, the company's artistic director and co-translator of the script, was amusing in two cameo appearances. This American production will make its New York debut on October 24 at Merkin Hall with the same cast.
What's an operetta?
Rather than copy Wagner's musical style, The Merry Nibelungs often resembles Gilbert and Sullivan, with patter songs similar to "I am the captain of the Pinafore" and "I am the very model of a modern major general." These alternate with catchy Viennese tunes, like a Rheingold waltz that appears in the first act and returns in the finale. A happy ending was necessary, as the cast of The Merry Nibelungs tell us: "Siegfried can't die because this is an operetta."
So what, after all, is the difference between opera and operetta? Some people think it's operetta when dialogue is spoken instead of sung. But that would make The Magic Flute, The Tales of Hoffman and Carmen operettas, which no one holds to be the case. As to the theory that happy endings make an operetta, what about The Barber of Seville and The Magic Flute's cheerful conclusions? This issue can't be easily resolved.
It reminds me of Justice Potter Stewart 's comment in the Supreme Court 1964 case about pornography: "I know it when I see it."
What, When, Where
The Merry Niebelungs. Operetta by Oscar Straus; translation by Michael Ashby, Daniel Pantano and Stephan Stoeckl; José Meléndez, music director. Concert Operetta Theater production, June 12-13, 2010 at Academy of Vocal Arts, 1920 Spruce St. (215) 389-0648 or www.concertoperetta.com.
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