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Goliath Armstrong is a multimillionaire and one of Manhattan’s most sought-after bachelors. Of course, he can hardly save himself from marriage proposals. However, he prefers to enjoy his turbulent jet set life. His special quirk: wherever he happens to be, he has roses flown in from Florida. Prophylactic. Maybe the right one could be at the door one day.
The plot of the operetta “Roses from Florida” is absolutely topical. It is reminiscent of the concept of “The Bachelor”, a reality soap on private television, says the chief conductor of the Leipzig Musical Comedy, Stefan Klingele. So he is surprised that it has not been played by any theater in the German-speaking area in recent years.
“1951 in St. Gallen, that was the last series of performances known to me – the piece has now disappeared for almost seventy years.”
Reconstruction of operettas from unpublished material
The composer Leo Fall was a star during his lifetime. His operettas “Madame Pompadour”, “Die Dollarprinzessin” or “The Rose von Stambul” were and are still big hits today. But almost every hard-working genius occasionally loses interest in completing a project. The manuscript for “Roses from Florida” remained a fragment – and ended up in a drawer. Leo Fall did not touch it until his death.
This started an exciting story that has by no means been adequately researched. The widow Leo Falls gave the fragments to the then young composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold with the request to complete the piece. He did it. But nothing is known about the whereabouts of the manuscript fragments, says Stefan Klingele.
“I don’t know if they were lost in the war, maybe they’ll reappear. But maybe that’s a legend too! What can be stated is that Berta Fall, the widow Fall simply really needed money because Leo Fall was a fun-loving man who gambled away and probably drunk. And Berta Fall took her own life at some point, simply because she was really lonely and alone and didn’t know how to secure her existence. Maybe it was just a kind of gift from Korngold to Berta Fall … “
From Charleston to Richard Strauss
The score of “Roses from Florida” is extremely varied. Similar to Korngold’s older colleague Paul Abraham, the waltz and march-heavy operetta sound is now and then enriched by typical fashion dances of the twenties such as foxtrot and Charleston. A banjo is even provided for one number. Then there are again passages that clearly sound like Richard Strauss or Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari. A stimulating mix – and a demanding task for the young conductor and her two male colleagues, who rehearsed the work under the guidance of Stefan Klingele within a week.
“So what strikes us a lot is the rich instrumentation,” says Klingele. “So there is an incredible amount of silvery, delicate elements in the percussion. A harp is used, two saxophones that always play in thirds in the love duets. The strings are also very tight in the harmony.”
How do you conduct an operetta?
“You don’t know exactly: what is from Fall and what from Korngold,” says one of the three scholarship holders of the German Music Council, the Swiss Reto Schärli.
“It is actually the first time that I have learned a piece and there has not been a single recording,” adds Yura Yang, who comes from South Korea and, after an internship at the Dresden State Operetta, now has her first job as Kapellmeister at the Theater in Kiel.
“I was once allowed to do operetta in Dresden and then I noticed that conducting is different, I think when you conduct operetta. And I wanted to use the opportunity to really learn that from such a great conductor.”
Stefan Klingele considers “Roses from Florida” to be ideally suited to convey the musical direction of an operetta to the three scholarship holders – the third, Chanmin Chung, also came from South Korea.
“So there are slow waltzes, fast waltzes, marches, dances, everything is included! They learn to conduct in all directions. You have to conduct rubato and let soft sounds bloom gently and also hit the dramatic parts!”
Since the orchestra of the Musical Comedy Leipzig was also not yet familiar with the music of “Rosen aus Florida”, the three young maestros in the rehearsals naturally had it easier to be accepted by the musicians.
“The orchestra has to quickly find its way into completely new pieces, find wrong notes, for example, adapt and also test line styles – and that is a real workshop character, as one would actually expect.”
Successful experiment
All three scholarship holders fully did justice to the task, but Yura Yang and Chanming Chung from South Korea conducted the premiere of the concert production a touch more rousing and musical than the Swiss Reto Schärli. The musical ensemble of the Leipzig Musical Comedy was also in top form. Adam Sanchez played the young billionaire Goliath Armstrong as a slightly greasy tenor with wonderfully funny bon vivant poses. As a guest at the house, Desirée Brodka was convincing in the role of Dorrit, the woman who was intended for Goliath by his parents, but who leaves him completely indifferent. But of course it comes under the hood in the end. After turbulent scenes of confusion, there is a happy ending with the Russian noblewoman Irina Narysvhkin, who obviously didn’t care about Goliath’s immense wealth. She was embodied by ensemble member Lilly Wünscher, with a grand gesture and a pleasantly voluminous soprano. A successful operetta evening that made a worthwhile discovery possible for the Leipzig audience!
Christian Geltinger, the chief dramaturge of the opera and the musical comedy Leipzig can very well imagine a staged production of “Roses from Florida” in the future.
“The whole piece could be put under the motto” The Bachelor “. In the second act there is, for example, a beauty contest, a beauty contest. In the end, it could be wonderfully updated to the present day.”
Chief conductor Stefan Klingele sees it the same way. “I’m pretty sure a theater will do a production in the next few years!”
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