Countess Maritza

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Countess Maritza (Marica grófnő) is an operetta in three acts composed by Hungarian composer Emmerich Kálmán, with a libretto by Julius Brammer and Alfred Grünwald. It premiered in Vienna, as Gräfin Mariza, on 28 February 1924 at the Theater an der Wien.

As Countess Maritza it made its New York debut at the Shubert Theatre, in an adaptation by Harry B. Smith, and with interpolated music by other composers, on 18 September 1926, playing 318 performances. Since the 1981 production by the Lubo Opera Company, however, most American productions have been straightforward English translations of the original, with Kálmán's music intact.

As Maritza, it opened in London at the Palace Theatre on 6 July 1938.

There have been many movie versions and recordings.

Note: The English name of this work is usually Countess Maritza, though it is sometimes given as Countess Mariza; the German name is rather uniformly Gräfin Mariza: they would all be pronounced the same. Emmerich Kálmán also wrote a musical called Marinka; despite the similar name, this is a distinct work.

The 1959 musical Little Mary Sunshine, which lampoons older operettas and musicals, has a song -- "Do You Ever Dream of Vienna?" -- that parodies Countess Maritza's "Vienna Mine."

Contents

[edit] Roles

  • Countess Maritza (Singer)
  • Sovereign Populescu
  • Baron Kolomán Zsupán, land owner of Varasdin (Buffo)
  • Count Tassilo of Endrödy-Wittemburg (Tenor)
  • Lisa, Tassilo's Sister (Soubrette)
  • Karl Stefan Liebenberg
  • Baroness Bozena Guddenstein of Clumetz
  • Penizek, her valet
  • Tschekko, an old butler of Maritza
  • Berko, gypsy
  • Manja, a young gypsy
  • Village children, guests, dancers, gypsies, peasant boys and peasant girls

[edit] Plot

[edit] Place and Time

At the castle of the countess Maritza in Hungary, about 1924

[edit] Act I

At the terrace of a castle with an adjacent park. Countess Martiza spends a long time of her life in the city, so she trusts her rural estate to her bailiff — Count Tassilo, who is operating under the name of Török. Tassilo hopes to earn a dowry for his sister Lisa — she doesn't know about the impoverishment of the family. He rather likes his service: he has never seen his mistress, just sends her the rents, and the servants and peasants treat him well. But this idyll is to come to an end: prince Populescu, an old Don Juan, comes and announces that countess Maritza will follow to celebrate her engagement there. Suddenly, she appears: A gorgeous, lively, but also a capricious young woman, who wants to disclose and celebrate the engagement with Baron Kolomán Zsupán. All guests have already arrived, but the engagement is only a fake, she secretly confesses to a friend, to get rid of her admirers. She invented a fiancee to herself, based on the recollection of Strauss' operetta, "The Gypsy Baron". She announces that he was delayed by some business, and the engagement party will go on without him. But then, suddenly, he appears! Baron Zhupan read about his own "engagement" in the papers, and decided to come. He meets Maritza and they sing a duet together, "Do not laugh, Maritza, but marry I should". Maritza introduces her "fiancee" to the guests and they all go out to the park. There they surprise sad Tassilio, who sings an aria "In the spring stillness a gypsy sings afar", which he ends with a czardas. Both Maritza and the guests see it, and Maritza orders him to repeat it. He refuses, and the angry countess announces, that he is fired. The guests are leaving the estate to go to the town, and get dissipated in cabarets. Maritza meets a young gypsy Manja who predicts that she will be very happy in love. "One moon will pass over this Earth and Maritza will find her happiness", she sings. Maritza refuses to go and stays on her estate. She stops Tassilio from leaving and apologies. She repeats the refrain of his aria "Hey, gypsy", and their duet ends Act I.

[edit] Act II

Scene 1. Maritza's estate, park. Visitors came to visit Maritza, - Liza, Tassilo's sister, who does not know that he is a manager here, and Zsupan, who came to visit his "fiancee". They like each other and Zhupan repeats twenty times that if he didn't love Maritza, he would have dreamed about Liza tonight. Tassilo is surprised and happy to meet his sister. In a duet "Come here and sit down", they recollect their childhood.

Scene 2. A parlour in Maritza's house. A month of her solitude has passed; guests are coming. They make fun of Tassilo. He writes a letter to his friend, to tell him that he endures a lot, but Liza is his only close relative, and he will endure everything for her dowry. He stops writing it abruptly when Maritza comes in. Together, they sing a duet, a confession of love ("My tender friend!") Populescu tells Maritza that he saw her manager in the park with a pretty girl, and he finds the unfinished letter where Tassilo speaks about a dowry. Maritza does not know that Tassilo has a sister, so he sees him as a dowry-hunter. The finale of the Second act is a dramatic scene with an aria "Hey, Maritza, be calm, hey, Maritza, endure this pain", chaffing of the guests, perplexed Tassilo... Maritza humiliates and insults him, and throws him out. Liza comes, runs towards her brother, and they leave together. Maritza understands that she's made a mistake.

[edit] Act III

The next morning Zsupan proposes to Liza in the park. They sing a merry duet together "A lad loved a lass". An old friend of Tassilo arrives, who announces that Tassilo has just received a large inheritance. Tassilo comes to Maritza to report the estate conditions. They reconcile. Two couples end the operetta by singing together "Time passes but love does not wait."