RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Oscar STRAUS (1870-1954)
The Chocolate Soldier - Operetta in three acts (1908) [88:10]
Bumerli, a young ‘soldier’ - Johannes Martin Kränzle
Nadina Popoff, a Bulgarian maiden - Caroline Stein
Colonel Kasimir Popoff, Nadina’s father - Helmut Berger
Alexius Spiridoff, soldier and Nadina’s fiancé - John Dickie
Aurelia Popoff, Nadina’s mother - Gertraud Wagner
Mascha, a young relative - Martina Borst
Captain Massakroff - Walter Raffeiner
Händel Collegium Köln and WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln/Siegfried Köhler
rec. broadcast, Westdeutschen Rundfunks, Cologne, 1993
CAPRICCIO C5089 [34:11 + 53:59] 
Oscar Straus (note the spelling of Straus – only one ‘s’ at its end) was born
in Vienna on 6 March 1870 but was not related to the famous Strauss dynasty.
He began his career emulating the satirical Offenbach, with Die Lustigen
Nibelungen (The Merry Nibelungs). Richard Traubner in his excellent
book, Operetta, A Theatrical History, suggests that it was “too
musically advanced for Viennese ears” and national-socialist pro-Wagnerians
were not amused. Those who relish the idea of lampooning of The Ring
might like to know that Capriccio have a one-CD Köln recording of Oscar Straus’s
The Merry Nibelungs again conducted by Köhler (C5088). Noticing
the great success of Lehár’s The Merry Widow, in 1905, Straus decided
to capitulate to public taste and entered the comfortable dream world of sentimental
Viennese operetta with his smash success - in Austria and Germany if not in
America and England - of Ein Waltztraum (A Waltz Dream) of 1907.
Straus’s The Chocolate Soldier (German
title: Der tapfere Soldat or Der Praliné-Soldat) followed in
1908. It was based on George
Bernard Shaw's 1894 play, Arms
and the Man and the libretto was by Rudolf Bernaur and Leopold Jacobson.
G.B. himself was not at all keen on such an adaptation of his play which had
been successful in its Viennese run and only accepted the situation provided
that Straus’s operetta was promoted as an unauthorized parody of his play
and that he received no royalties for it. A bad mistake - because the show
was a big hit in London and New York - but not quite so in Europe because
of political sensitivities surrounding the Balkans where the action of the
story was set. Later, Shaw tried to recoup some of his financial losses when
M-G-M approached him for the film rights for The Chocolate Soldier.
Louis B. Mayer refused Shaw’s exorbitant demands and the film went ahead with
a mix of Straus’s and other’s music but to a different plot based on Ferenc
Molnár's play Testor
. The 1941 film starred Nelson Eddy and Risë Stevens – although Jeanette MacDonald
had originally been pencilled in to star with Eddy.
There’s a very good Wikipedia
article on Straus’s The Chocolate Soldier that also details all
the songs. Briefly the story is set in Bulgaria in 1885 during the war between
Serbia and Bulgaria. Nadina, her friend Mascha and her mother are missing
their menfolk away at the hostilities. Suddenly a soldier, handsome and charming
bursts into her bedroom. He is Bumerli, a Swiss mercenary serving in the Serbian
army. He is an ordinary soldier quite unlike her supposedly heroic fiancée
Alexius. Bumerli carries chocolates in his pouch instead of ammunition! His
charm captivates the ladies and as Act I closes all three are smitten. They
all give him photographs of themselves inscribed with loving messages. He
puts all three in his great coat and promptly forgets them. But he cannot
forget Nadina. Six months later he returns for her but the three photographs
are produced. Jealousy flare up between Nadina and Mascha, Bumerli is thought
to be fickle and faithless and comic complications ensue. All is happily resolved
at the end.
The big hit of the show is the well-known and popular waltz song, ‘Komm, komm,
Held meiner Träum’ (‘Come, come hero of my dreams’). Here it is sung
most beguilingly by sweet-voiced Caroline Stein as Nadina. She is singing
about her Alexius in Act I, her fiancée and imagined hero, who turns out to
be nothing of the kind. The lower tenor timbre of Kränzle makes Bumerli
sound just that little bit too mature for Nadina. However the charm of their
duet ‘Weill’s Leben suss und herzlich ist’ (‘Because life is sweet and beautiful’)
cannot be diminished. Much of the music comprises ensemble writing - quartets,
quintets, and sextets and soloists with choir. The Act I ensemble song with
comic material for the soldiers searching for Bumerli and an interpolated
stirring patriotic song lustily sung by Nadina is a highlight – so, too, is
the following charming waltz-song trio for Nadina, Mascha and Aurelia They
sing ‘Tiralala’ as all besotted, they dream of their Chocolate soldier. This
number has some lovely orchestral felicities in the strings and woodwinds.
Kränzle’s wistful Act II song ‘If one can, as one wants’ has an introduction
that echoes the ‘Tiralala’. Kränzle has another charming if argumentative
duet ‘Es war einmal ein Fräulein’ (‘There was once a maiden’) with Nadina
before Act II’s exuberant finale closes with a ringing reprise of the big
number, ‘Komm, komm, Held meiner Träum’ (‘Come, come hero of my dreams’).
Conductor, Köhler consistently delivers telling sentimental and witty accompaniments
to all the numbers. Mention should be made of the delicious irony of the orchestral
accompaniments to the waspish numbers of Act II like the bickering between
Nadina and Bumerli in ‘Pardon, pardon pardon! Ich steig ja nur auf den Balkon’
(Pardon, I rise only on the balcony)
A charming recording of a delightful operetta.
Ian Lace
A charming recording of a delightful operetta.