In the second act the two find that they are really in love with each other. As the money furnished by the General is all spent, Symon decides to tell Laura of the deception practised upon her, though it may cost him the marriage, which was to have taken place that day. Afraid to tell her in person, he writes the disclosure, and intrusts the letter to the Countess with the request to have it given to Laura before the ceremony. The General, however, thwarts this scheme, and the pair are married, whereupon he exposes Symon to the assembled guests as an impostor and has him driven from the palace.
At the opening of the third act Symon appears in melancholy plight and contemplating suicide. His friend Janitsky, who is in love with Laura’s sister, Bronislava, comes to his rescue. He comes forward as a Polish officer engaged in a plot for the capture of the citadel and the reinstatement of King Stanislaus upon the throne of Poland. The plot with Symon’s help succeeds, and in return Symon is not only ennobled, but the Countess and his wife forgive him, and the governor-general is foiled at every point.
The principal numbers are Ollendorf’s entrance song in waltz time, “And they say that towards Ladies”; the characteristic duet by Symon and Janitsky on leaving jail, “Confounded Cell, at last I leave thee”; the charming entrance trio for Laura, Bronislava, and the Countess, “Some little Shopping really we ought to do”; and Laura’s brilliant song, “But when the Song is sweetly sounding,” in the finale of the first act; Laura’s humorous song, “If Joy in Married Life you’d find”; the sentimental duet of Bronislava and Janitsky, “This Kiss, Sweet Love”; Ollendorf’s grotesque songs, “One Day I was perambulating,” and “There in the Chamber Polish,” which is usually adapted as a topical song; and the long and cleverly concerted finale of the second act: and Bronislava’s song, “Prince a Beggar’s said to be,” and Symon’s couplet, “I’m penniless and outlawed too,” in the third act.
The Black Hussar.
[Opéra comique, in three acts. First produced at Vienna, 1886.]
PERSONAGES.
Helbert, officer of the Black Hussars. Waldermann, his companion. Hackenback, magistrate of Trautenfeld. Piffkow, his man of all work. Thorillière, major in Napoleon’s army. Hetman, captain of the Cossacks. Mifflin, an actor. Minna,
Rosetta, } Hackenback’s daughters. Barrara. Ricci. Goddess of Liberty. Germania.[Soldiers, peasants, villagers, conspirators, etc.]
The scene is laid in the German village of Trautenfeld; time, the years 1812-13.
The story of “The Black Hussar” is simple. Von Helbert, an officer of the Black Hussars, in the disguise of an army chaplain, is seeking to foment an insurrection in the town of Trautenfeld. Hackenback, the town magistrate, has carried himself so diplomatically, as between the Russians and French, and is so opposed to any rupture with either from fear of sudden visitation, that Von Helbert’s efforts to induce his townsmen to rise against the Napoleonic régime are not altogether successful. The French in the mean time are hunting for him, but he cunningly succeeds in getting a description of the magistrate posted for that of himself. To be ready for any sudden emergency, Hackenback has a reversible panel on his house, one side having the portrait of the Czar and the other that of Napoleon. When he is suspected by the French, he calls their attention to it; but unfortunately for him the Russian side is exposed, and this with the description which Von Helbert had so kindly posted leads to his arrest. Finally the Black Hussar regiment arrives, and captures the French troops just as they have captured the Russian, which had previously been in occupation, so that there is no need for further disguises. The humorous situations in the opera grow out of the love-making between Von Helbert and his companion Waldermann and the magistrate’s daughters Minna and Rosetta.
Although “The Black Hussar” is musically inferior to “The Beggar Student,” yet it has many interesting numbers, among them the long descriptive song of Piffkow, the man of all work, “Piffkow, Piffkow, that’s the cry,” which reminds one in its general character of Figaro’s famous song in “The Barber of Seville”; the magistrate’s buffo song, “All Night long I’ve weighed and sifted”; Helbert’s martial recitative, “I’ve traversed Lands that once were green”; the jolly gossipers’ chorus, introducing the second act; Piffkow’s bombastic song, “’Twas in the Adjacent Town Last Night”; Minna’s quaint Russian song, “Ivan loved his Katza well”; the introduced song, “Ohe, mamma”; and the trio following it, “The Ways of Love are very strange,” which closes the act.
NESSLER, VICTOR ERNST.
The Trumpeter of Säkkingen.
[Opera comique, in a prelude and three acts; text by Bunge. First produced at the Stadt Theatre, Leipsic, May 4, 1884.]
PERSONAGES.
Baron of Schoenau. Margaretha, his daughter. Count of Wildenstein. Countess Wildenstein, the Baron’s cousin. Damian, the Count’s son by a second marriage. Werner Kirchoff, the “trumpeter.” Conradin, a trooper.
[Heralds, youths, maidens, peasants, school children, students, troopers, etc.]
The scene is laid in Säkkingen, on the Rhine; time, the year 1650, near the close of the Thirty Years’ War.