Emerich (Imre) Kalman

Who the Devil is Emerich Kalman? His name goes close to being totally forgotten these days but in the first half of the 20th century he was much acclaimed. His music was so popular that Hitler even offered to make him an honorary Aryan (Kalman was Jewish) -- an amazing distinction, whatever else it was. Kalman declined the offer and got out of Europe while the going was good.

But there is one place these days where he has not been forgotten: Moerbisch. Moerbisch is as near as you can get to being the world headquarters of operetta. Situated by a lake in Austria's beautiful Salzkammergut (Lake District), Moerbisch is to operetta as Bayreuth is to Wagner. Performances at Moerbisch are lavish. Huge sums are spent on them to make them as good a performance of the work concerned as you can possibly get.

And the audience at Moerbisch is amazing in its vastness. When the cameras cut to the audience you can see that their claim of huge audiences is fully believable. The audience goes on forever. It looks like half of Vienna is there. Does any other stage performance have an audience that big? I know of none. Perhaps in Russia.

The Moerbisch performances might almost be called "definitive" performances except for one thing: No two stage shows of any kind are ever the same (except perhaps for Shakespearean performances). The original script is taken as not much more than a set of suggestions in many cases. The producer on each occasion feels free to cut bits out and put new bits in. And for the light entertainment that is operetta that is particularly so.

That seems to me disrespectful of the talent that made the show notable in the first place but it can help by making a show more relevant to a particular time and place. And the great resources of all kinds now available in the early 21st century greatly expand what can be done -- things that would probably not be dreamed of by the original author -- but which do expand the watchability and impact of the show.

And having the great resources of Moerbisch applied to an operetta by Hungarian composer Kalman certainly produces very good musical theatre indeed. I have recently watch the 2004 Moerbisch performance of Kalman's Graefin Maritza and was quite gripped by it. The plot of the play is the sort of folly you expect from operetta -- with everybody living happily ever after by the end of the show -- but the acting and the singing were as good as can be.

And Kalman's music was both lively and inclusive of some very catchy songs. I am in fact rather amazed that the Varasdin song is not better known. It is very fun and catchy indeed. The inhabitants of the fine city of Varasdin in Northern Croatia are probably not too keen on the song as it portrays Varasdin as home to 18,000 pigs -- when Varasdin has much grander real claims than that.

Tenor Marko Kathol leads the Varasdin scene and I was much impressed by his talent. I have watched that scene over and over again. With Kalman's music and the spirited performances by both Kathol and the "Graefin" (Dagmar Schellenberger), it is so beautiful that it tends to make me weep at times (Even when sober!). I have looked Kathol up and it seems that others share my very favourable impression of his abilities. That he is a former ballet dancer certainly shows in the flexibility with which he moves

Viennese operetta has a sort of frantic gaiety about it. It came into its own in the aftermath of the ghastly WWI and no city was more impacted by that war than Vienna. It lost something like 90% of the territory it once ruled. But, being the city of music, Vienna rose to the occasion and produced entertainment that both lightened the spirits and took people back to happier days. The operettas are most set in the prewar period. They have left a great musical treasure for us all.

You can view the whole Moerbisch performance of Graefin Maritza online here. But if you want English subtitles you will have to buy the DVD. The words are of course in German, but the music is international. Go to the 48 minute mark for the marvellous Varasdin song ("Komm mit nach Varasdin"). The words of the song are here

There is a nice picture below of the very expressive Dagmar Schellenberger in her role as the Graefin at Moerbisch in 2004. She is both a most accomplished soprano and a superb actress.

Libretto for: "Komm mit nach Varazdin" episode (Gräfin Mariza)

ER Ich bitte, nicht lachen, der Ise , der Sachen, der Amor, Der hat mich so gepackt! Die Urkraft der Triebe, das Feuer der Liebe, Ich weiss nicht genau wie man da sagt!

SIE Ich find'es ergötzlich,dass sie gar so plötzlich, So stürmisch ihr Herz für mich entdeckt, Sie sparten, mit Worten nicht, mit zarten, Doch müssen sie noch warten, sie haben mich erschreckt!

ER Das geht nicht! Ich dichte nicht, ich red'nicht, Ich bin auch kein Poet nicht, ich sage nur:

Komm mit nach Varazdin! So lange noch die Rosen blüh'n, Dort woll'n wir glücklich sein, wir beide ganz allein! Du bist die schönste Fee, von Debrecen bis Plattensee, Drum möcht mit dir ich hin nach Varazdin! Denn meine Leidenschaft, brennt heisser noch als Gulaschsaft Und in der Brust tanzt Herz mir Czardas her und hin! Komm mit nach Varazdin, so lange noch die Rosen blüh'n, Dort ist die ganze Welt noch rot , weiss ,grün!

SIE Da kann man nix machen, der Ise, der Sachen, der Amor, Der ist schon einmal so!

ER Der Spitzbub erst spielt er, dann lacht er, dann zielt er, Dann schiesst er und trifft uns irgendwo!

SIE Sie sprechen sehr drastisch, sie schildren sehr plastisch, Sie schneiden ganz reizend mir die Cour, Ein Freier mit Temprament und Feuer wie sie,wirkt ungeheuer Auf's Herz und pour l'amour!

ER Ja! wenn ich sie anschau nur, so brenn'ich und brenn'ich, Hat, so kenn'ich das Eine nur:

Komm mit nach Varazdin! So lange noch die Rosen blüh'n, Dort woll'n wir glücklich sein, wir beide ganz allein! Du bist die schönste Fee, von Debrecen bis Plattensee, Drum möcht mit dir ich hin nach Varazdin! Denn meine Leidenschaft, brennt heisser noch als Gulaschsaft Und in der Brust tanzt Herz mir Czardas her und hin! Komm mit nach Varazdin, so lange noch die Rosen blüh'n, Dort ist die ganze Welt noch rot , weiss ,grün!

Biography

Attending the University „Carl Maria von Weber“ in Dresden Dagmar Schellenberger gained her musical education. Still studying she won the International Dvorak Song Contest in Karlsbad, which was the starting point for her international career.

At the beginning of her career at the Komische Oper Berlin she was renowned in Mozart parts. She performed as Pamina in Zauberfloete, Susanna and Contessa in Figaro, Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, and Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in Giovanni. For her performance as Agathe in Freischuetz, which she also sang at the Berliner Staatsoper and the Oper in Frankfurt am Main, she received a “critics price” from the Berlin newspapers.

The broad repertoire of Dagmar Schellenberger reaches from Monteverdi’s Poppea (Opera Marseille) and Haendel’s Arianna in Guistino (guest roles from Amsterdam to Vienna) to Rosalinde in Johann Strauß’s Fledermaus (i.a. at the Staatsoper in Berlin and Hamburg, Opera Bastille, Paris and Santiago de Chile). At the world premiere of Matthus Farinelli Dagmar Schellenberger - in her role as Maria Strada - was nominated as Singer of the Year 1998 by a reviewer of the Opernwelt. In another world premiere she sang the Hildegard in Siegfried Wagner’s Heiliger Linde. Impersonating all three women in Les Contes des Hoffmann Dagmar Schellenberger was able to show the wide scope of her state of art, which was celebrated by the press as a “tour de force”. For several years now Dagmar Schellenberger has been supervised in vocal training by KS Brigitte Eisenfeld.

Engagements and Guest roles led Dagmar Schellenberger not only to the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Staatsopern of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Dresden, Duesseldorf, Stuttgart, Zurich and Vienna but also to Buenos Aires (with the Zauberfloete and Cosi fan Tutte), New York (with Orfeo ed Euridice and La Donna del Lago), Amsterdam (with Arabella and Koenigin von Saba), Bruxelles, Paris, Marseille, Strasbourg, Venice, Nice, Nancy, Toulouse, Lausanne, Monte Carlo, Roma, Milan, Palermo, Geneve, Turin, Cagliari, Valencia, Sevilla, Jerusalem, Nagoya and Tokyo.

Parts in her repertoire are Elisabeth in Tannhaeuser, Eva in Meistersinger, and Elsa in Lohengrin. Further on she performed in several Strauss parts, e.g. Marschallin in Rosenkavalier, Arabella in Arabella and the countess in Carpriccio.

Dagmar Schellenberger also sticks out as a ballad singer. Singing oratorios of the Matthaeus Passion with the Cleveland Orchestra or Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra she was also appreciated singing Schostakowitsch’s 14^th Symphony at the Gewandhaus Leipzig.

In 1993 Dagmar Schellenberger made an exclusive contract with EMI Classics where she recorded Deutsche Arien from Haendel to Wagner as well as international lullabies in six different languages. Her discography is pretty impressive: Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Humperdinck’s Koenigskinder or Eugen d’Albert’s Tote Augen are only a few examples. Including original recordings of performances there are more than 30 CD records with Dagmar Schellenberger.

Dagmar Schellenberger has worked with renowned artists like Hartmut Haenchen, Milan Horvath, Kurt Masur, Fabio Luisi, Franz Welser - Möst, Neville Marriner, Ralf Weikert, Leopold Hager, Rolf Reuter, Alain Lombard, Edo de Waart, Marek Jankowski, Michail Jurowski, Vladimir Jurowski, Ivor Bolton, Pierre Boulez, Kazushi Ono, Lawrence Renes, Christian Thielemann, Zubin Mentha, Riccardo Muti and Yuri Temirkanow.

With her debut at the scala in Milan in 2004 she experienced a special highlight performing the Blanche in Les Dialogues des Carmelites with Riccardo Muti. This was followed by admiring acknowledgement by the national italian press .

The following year (2005) she received another invitation to the scala as Lisa in Tschaikowsky’s Pique Dame (Queen of Spades) which was also celebrated in the press afterwards. As a steady part of the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Duesseldorf from 2006 to 2009 she performed in Katja Kabanova, as Saffi in Zigeunerbaron, Rosalinde in Fledermaus and Eva in Meistersinger. She sang the Marschallin in Rosenkavalier worldwide, e.g. with great success with Edo de Waart in Hongkong in 2007 and again in the following year in 2008.

The year 2009 was characterized by triumphant Katja Kabanova performances and in 2010 was her debut as Ariadne in "Ariadne auf Naxos" in Dusseldorf.

For fifteen years Dagmar Schellenberger has been working pedagogically with singers and students, also as a guest professor at the UdK (University of Arts) in Berlin from 2006 til 2012 and as jury member at large singing competitions.

In spring of 2011 Dagmar Schellenberger became the new designated Intendant of the Seefestspiele Mörbisch which she previously got to know and love during her engagement at the Seefestspiele as "Gräfin Mariza" in 2004 and "Lustige Witwe" in 2005.

In June of 2012 she sang at the Wiener Konzerthaus in Weinberger’s opera “Wallenstein”.

In September 2012 the chamber singer took over the directorship of the Seefestspiele Mörbisch. In her first season as the director of the Seefestspiele Mörbisch she celebrated great success with Millöckers "Der Bettelstudent" in the summer of 2013.       

As Iduna in Paul Burkhards operetta „Das Feuerwerk“ Dagmar Schellenberger sang in january of 2014.

 

As of now she is inmidst of preparations for her second season in Mörbisch with the summer production of Jerry Bocks Musical "Anatevka" in July/August 2014, where she will be singing the Golde herself.

Words and translation for song Vilja

Nun lasst uns aber wie daheim So let us, however, as at home
Jetzt singen unser’n Ringelreim Now sing our ring dance rhyme
Von einer Fee, die wie bekannt About a fairy, who,  as is known
Daheim die Vilja wird genannt! At home is called Vilja!

Es lebt’  eine Vilja, ein Waldmägdelein, There lived a Vilja, a wood-maiden,
Ein Jäger erschaut’ sie im Felsengestein! A hunter spied her in a rocky cliff!
Dem Burschen, dem wurde The fellow, became
So eigen zu Sinn, So strangely affected,
Er schaute und schaut’ He looked and looked
auf das Waldmägdlein hin. At the little wood-maiden.
Und ein niegekannter Schauder And a never known shudder
Fasst den jungen Jägersmann, Seized the young hunter,
Sehnsuchtsvoll fing er still zu seufzen an! Longingly he began quietly to sigh!
Vilja, o Vilja, Du Waldmägdelein, Vilja, O Vilja, you little woods-maiden,
Fass’ mich und lass’ mich Take me and let me
Dein Trautliebster sein! Be our dearest true love!
Vilja, O Vilja, was tust Du mir an? Vilja, O Vilja, what are you doing to me?
Bang fleht ein liebkranker Mann! Fearfully begs  a lovesick man!

Das Waldmägdelein streckte The woods-maiden stretched
die Hand nach ihm aus Out her hand to him
Und zog ihn hinein in ihr felsiges Haus. And pulled him into her cliff-dwelling.
Dem Burschen die Sinne vergangen fast sind   The lad almost lost his senses, ( for)
So liebt und so küsst gar kein irdisches Kind.  Thus loved and kissed no earthly child.
Als sie sich dann satt geküsst As soon as she was sated with kissing
Verschwand sie zu derselben Frist! She disappeared at that moment!
Einmal hat noch der Arme sie gegrüsst: Just once did the poor lad wave to her:
Vilja, o Vilja, Du Waldmägdelein, Vilja, O Vilja, you little woods-maiden,
Fass’ mich und lass’ mich Take me and let me
Dein Trautliebster sein! Be our dearest true love!
Vilja, O Vilja, was tust Du mir an? Vilja, O Vilja, what are you doing to me?
Bang fleht ein liebkranker Mann! Fearfully begs  a lovesick man!

Translation by Lea Frey