8 August: Excerpts from Kalman's COUNTESS MARITZA
The artist(s): Emmerich Kalman was one of the great trio of Viennese operatic composers, the other two being Johann Strauss, Jr., and Franz Lehar. Although Kalman's most popular operetta today is probably his COUNTESS MARITZA, which was produced at Vienna in 1924, the composer's first great success came with his DIE CZARDASFURSTIN (The Gypsy Princess), which was produced in Vienna in 1915 and was quite the rage during the later years of World War I. It established Kalman's fame and his financial security. Kalman's COUNTESS MARITZA and Lehar's THE MERRY WIDOW are certainly two of the finest and most popular operettas ever written. They furnish very beautiful music for great singers to perform. In Act I of COUNTESS MARITZA the tenor Tassilo has no less than two famous arias--"Gruss mir die Frauen" and then the very familiar "Play Gypsies, Dance Gypsies." And Countess Maritza has a fine entrance aria. Our stars will be soprano Anneliese Rothenberger and tenor Nicolai Gedda, both among the most famous operetta artists who have made LP recordings. There are also some delightful and amusing moments in this operetta, which I believe to be Kalman's finest score.
Engineer(s): Chubias Smith
