From The Land of Smiles (Das Land des Laechelns) comes what is probably the best loved and most widely sung of all of Lehár’s vocal numbers, “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz” (“Thine Is My Heart Alone”) which opened not in Vienna but in Berlin, on October 10, 1929. This was actually a new version of an old Lehár operetta, originally called The Yellow Jacket (Die gelbe Jacke) which had been introduced in Vienna in 1923. The romantic plot of both operettas involved a Chinese diplomat, Prince Sou-Chong, and Lisa, daughter of an Austrian Count. They marry and settle in Peking in whose strange setting, Lisa’s love for the Prince soon turns to hate. With great magnanimity—even though this is in violation of ancient Chinese traditions and customs—he allows Lisa to leave him and return home.
In The Yellow Jacket, “Thine Is My Heart Alone” is sung by Lisa, and at that time this number made little impression. The famous tenor, Richard Tauber, fell in love with it, and performed it so extensively in his recitals everywhere that he and the song became inextricably identified. When Lehár revised his operetta and renamed it The Land of Smiles, he cast the song “Thine Is My Heart Alone” as a major second-act aria for Prince Sou-Chong, Richard Tauber playing the part of the Prince. The Land of Smiles was a personal triumph for Tauber who appeared in it over 2,500 times all over the world. “Thine Is My Heart Alone” became with him something of a theme song. He rarely gave a concert anywhere without singing it either on the program itself or as an encore. When The Land of Smiles was given in New York City in 1946, with Tauber as the star, the operetta was renamed Yours Is My Heart; in this production Tauber sang the song four times in four different languages, French, Italian, German, and English.
There can be little question but that The Merry Widow (Die lustige Witwe) is one of the most famous operettas ever written. It was a sensation when first performed, in Vienna on December 28, 1905. It came both to London and New York in 1907, a major success in both places. In Buenos Aires it was performed simultaneously in five theaters in five different languages. Since 1907 there was hardly a time when The Merry Widow was not being performed in some part of the world. It has enjoyed in excess of six thousand performances, a thousand of these in Vienna alone. On several occasions it has been adapted for the screen.
Victor Léon and Leo Stein wrote the text. This is the usual operetta material involving a beautiful heiress from a mythical kingdom. She is Sonia from Marsovia, who is leading a gay life in Paris. Beautiful and wealthy, she is inevitably sought out by the most handsome men of Paris. The government of Marsovia is eager to get her to marry one of its native sons, the dashing Prince Danilo, thereby keeping her fortune at home. As she conducts her vivacious night life she is zealously watched over by the Marsovian Ambassador, Baron Popoff, who never loses an opportunity to further the interests of Danilo. Eventually, Sonia has had her fling and is ready to settle down with the Prince.
The Merry Widow Waltz, “S’fluestern Geigen, Lippen schweigen,” an eye-filling climax to the third act, is not only the most popular excerpt from this operetta but also one of the most celebrated waltzes ever written. A secondary waltz, “Vilia” is also highly beguiling, while a third musical favorite from this score is “Da geh’ ich zu Maxim” (“The Girl at Maxim’s”).
What is one of Lehár’s best waltzes, second in popularity only to that of The Merry Widow, does not come from any operetta. It is the Gold and Silver Waltzes (Gold und Silber Waelzer), op. 79 which he wrote as a concert number.
Ruggiero Leoncavallo
Ruggiero Leoncavallo was born in Naples, Italy, on March 8, 1858. He was graduated from the Bologna Conservatory, then spent several years traveling. He finally came to Paris where he earned his living playing the piano, singing, and writing music-hall songs. The powerful Italian publisher, Ricordi, commissioned him to write a trilogy of operas set in the Renaissance. Leoncavallo completed the first of these operas, I Medici, but it proved too expensive to mount and was shelved. This experience convinced him that he ought to write an opera of slighter dimensions, one which would not cost too much to produce, and which would be in the realistic style (“Verismo”) just made so popular by Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana. In four months’ time, Leoncavallo completed Pagliacci, the opera through which his name survives. It received a triumphant première in Milan in 1892, with Toscanini conducting. Though Leoncavallo wrote many operas after that he never wrote one as good or as popular as the one that made him world famous. Only one of these later operas has retained interest, Zaza, introduced in 1900. A third opera, La Bohème, was well received when introduced in Venice in 1897, but was soon thrown into complete obscurity by a rival opera on the same subject, that of Puccini. In 1906 Leoncavallo toured the United States in performances of Pagliacci. The failures of his last operas made him a bitter, broken man in the last years of his life. He died in Montecatini, Italy, on August 9, 1919.
The composer prepared his own libretto for Pagliacci, a play within a play. A troupe of strolling players headed by Canio arrives for performances in a Calabrian village. Canio’s wife, Nedda, falls in love with Silvio, one of the villagers, and she in turn is being pursued by the pathetic clown of the troupe, Tonio. Through Tonio, Canio discovers his wife has been unfaithful to him, but fails to learn the identity of his rival. At the troupe’s evening performance—and in a play that closely resembles the actual happenings within the company—Canio kills Nedda when she fails to tell him who her lover is. But Silvio, in the audience, reveals himself by rushing on the stage to help Nedda. There Canio kills him.
Many of the selections from this opera are famous, but the most famous of all is the tenor aria, in which Canio speaks his immense grief on discovering that his wife has a lover, “Vesti la giubba.”