Organization

Conductor

Wolfgang Kluge

Chorus master

Sebastian Kennerknecht

Stage director

Felix Losert

Singer

Soprano

Lilli Wünscher

Lisa

Margarita Vilsone

Tenor

David Ameln

Count Gustav von Potterstein

Costa Latsos

Prince Sou-Chong

Natasha Sallès

Anhaltisches Theater Dessau

Orchestra

Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau

Others

Opernchor des Anhaltischen Theaters Dessau

saksa

Das Land des Lächelns -  (The Land of Smiles)

Dessau

Germany

Am Mausoleum

Public

The Land of Smiles

Approved

"There are three types of dramatic music: opera, operetta, Lehár," said Paul Knepler, expressing the uniqueness of Lehár's music. DAS LAND DES LÄCHELNS - premiered in Berlin's Metropol-Theater in 1929 - is one of his most frequently performed works. The operetta tells the love story of a daughter from a good Viennese family and a Chinese prince. Lehár and his lyricists decidedly oppose the venerable Viennese operetta tradition and let the complicated relationship between the two not end with a dream wedding but with bitterness, disappointment and separation. It seems that it is due to insurmountable cultural differences. But it is much closer to assuming that the two lovers started out too much from their own wishes than to open up to the other. In view of this tragic story, Lehár's music loses its initial lightness more and more during the evening and gains in drama, great outbursts and vocal-orchestral opulence until the tragic end of the opera. The fact that Lehár's score hardly bears any greater resemblance to music from the Middle Kingdom, despite the Chinese setting that gave it the title, was not important to Lehár and his audience for the past 100 years. It wasn't supposed to be a resounding portrait of China. Rather, Lehár wanted to pick up on the style of Puccini's popular Asian operas such as Madama Butterfly and Turandot, which, like Lehár, were about the very big feeling. You only have to recall songs like “Your is my whole heart” to show that Lehár achieved his goal perfectly - Richard Tauber had to repeat it four times at the premiere.

The Anhaltisches Theater Dessau presents Lehár's classics in front of the imposing backdrop of the mausoleum in the zoo. We experience the land of smiles in the form of a concert. Instead of the dialogues of the operetta, a moderator tells the story of Lisa and Sou Chong.

English

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