Page 176 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2021. Opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama ▪︎ Operetta between the Two World Wars. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 5
P. 176
opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama
It is almost expected that the wealthy merchant from Hamburg be a
Polish Jew, and thus the libretto places Jews a little way outside the Hun-
garian community, with operettic ease. For example, Werner reads the lib-
eral newspaper from Stuttgart,21 and from the first act one can suspect that
the narrative of his assimilation is what forms the operetta’s context in so-
cial philosophy.22
The process of misinterpretation: the irredentist anthem
Having examined the thin plot of this operetta, we get ever closer to under-
standing why this song was the one to become the anthem of intensifying
inter-war irredentist endeavours. The operetta was disseminated as better
works tended to be in the era: it ran for hundreds of nights, it had a reviv al
in the same theatre where it premiered, its rights were sold to rural theatres,
then after five or six years a song separated from its original context, and
gained an independent life at musical revues. The Hamburg Bride was con-
sidered reasonably successful, but this success owed little to the aesthetic
value of the work. We may note a few details around the premiere: the pub-
licity and attention due to the star quality of the cast, the effect of the two
film adaptations, and the political position of the author of the novella the
libretto was based on. The first two elements of success are generic, but the
latter is worth examining, as it exemplifies the well-known possibility of
the actor’s or writer’s life itself becoming a product.
The advertising campaign before the 1922 premiere highlights that
the piece has three authors, and the adaptation’s source material is given
more weight, almost, than the new operetta. They have nothing but praise
for Gyula Pekár’s novella, The Borrowed Castle.23 The position of Pekár,
the writer was an early confirmation of irredentist allusions. He had been
a state secretary for religion and education, a minister without portfo-
lio for a short while, a member of Parliament for three decades, chaired
both the Hungarian Foreign Policy Society and the (far right-wing, os-
tensibly pan-Turkish nationalist) Turanist Society, and was the chairman
of the Petőfi Society, the most important public literary organisation, al-
though he was a rather mediocre writer. Thus his unexceptional writings
are inseparable from his political appointments. Pekár died in 1937 but
lived long enough to see the irredentist reinterpretation of his most pop-
21 Ibid., 17.
22 Ibid., 18.
23 “Hat intervju,” 19.
174
It is almost expected that the wealthy merchant from Hamburg be a
Polish Jew, and thus the libretto places Jews a little way outside the Hun-
garian community, with operettic ease. For example, Werner reads the lib-
eral newspaper from Stuttgart,21 and from the first act one can suspect that
the narrative of his assimilation is what forms the operetta’s context in so-
cial philosophy.22
The process of misinterpretation: the irredentist anthem
Having examined the thin plot of this operetta, we get ever closer to under-
standing why this song was the one to become the anthem of intensifying
inter-war irredentist endeavours. The operetta was disseminated as better
works tended to be in the era: it ran for hundreds of nights, it had a reviv al
in the same theatre where it premiered, its rights were sold to rural theatres,
then after five or six years a song separated from its original context, and
gained an independent life at musical revues. The Hamburg Bride was con-
sidered reasonably successful, but this success owed little to the aesthetic
value of the work. We may note a few details around the premiere: the pub-
licity and attention due to the star quality of the cast, the effect of the two
film adaptations, and the political position of the author of the novella the
libretto was based on. The first two elements of success are generic, but the
latter is worth examining, as it exemplifies the well-known possibility of
the actor’s or writer’s life itself becoming a product.
The advertising campaign before the 1922 premiere highlights that
the piece has three authors, and the adaptation’s source material is given
more weight, almost, than the new operetta. They have nothing but praise
for Gyula Pekár’s novella, The Borrowed Castle.23 The position of Pekár,
the writer was an early confirmation of irredentist allusions. He had been
a state secretary for religion and education, a minister without portfo-
lio for a short while, a member of Parliament for three decades, chaired
both the Hungarian Foreign Policy Society and the (far right-wing, os-
tensibly pan-Turkish nationalist) Turanist Society, and was the chairman
of the Petőfi Society, the most important public literary organisation, al-
though he was a rather mediocre writer. Thus his unexceptional writings
are inseparable from his political appointments. Pekár died in 1937 but
lived long enough to see the irredentist reinterpretation of his most pop-
21 Ibid., 17.
22 Ibid., 18.
23 “Hat intervju,” 19.
174
