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[terug naar inhoud Suppe-biografie]

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inhoud:

• Suppé at the Theater am Franz-Josefs-Kai 
• Die Operette „Zehn Mädchen und kein Mann"
• „Flotte Bursche"
• The Carltheater 
• Suppé at the Carltheater 
• „Die schöne Galathee"
•  „Leichte Kavallerie" 
• The successful operettas: 
 
• „Fatinitza"
• „Boccaccio"
• „Donna Juanita"
• Gars am Kamp - the „Sophienheim" 
• The last years 

 The great fire at the theatre 1863

While the conductor of the Theater an der Wien became more and more popular, the director Alois Pokorny had to file a petition in bankruptcy for the house in spring 1862. Suppé had to look out for both a new occupation and a new lodging. He accepted finally Karl Treumann's offer to become conductor at the Theater am Franz-Josefs-Kai and moved to the Obere Donaustraße 57.

 The actor and singer Karl Treumann had already cooperated with Suppé at the Theater an der Wien, but then he went to the Carltheater and founded finally his own theater: He raised at the Franz-Josefs-Kai - near today's Morzinplatz - a new building, which was inaugurated on November 1st 1860. Especially Offenbach's vaudevilles and farces with vocal numbers were presented here to the Viennese public.

 The theater, also called „Treumann-Theater" by the Viennese - besides Karl Treumann his brother Franz and his sister-in-law Therese worked there -, enjoyed great popularity with the Viennese people.

 But Suppé's work at this theater ended abruptly. On the night of June 9th 1863, a fire broke out after the performance and the building burned to the ground. But for Treumann that was a blessing in disguise. Shortly after, he had the opportunity of leasing the traditionalistic Carltheater in the second district. Director and conductor started now their new jobs at the theater at Praterstraße.

The operetta „Zehn Mädchen und kein Mann"

 The story: A father of ten girls is despairing, because none of the girls is married. When a young man appears finally, he makes them sing and dance one after the other in front of the potential husband. But finally he hears the name of the youth and it turns out that he is his son, of whose existence he was not aware. The young man wants to marry the parlormaid - and the father has now eleven children...

 The dances and songs of the operetta (such as a „Tyrolienne" and an Italian „Arietta") remodeled on the folkloric music of different parts of Europe - therefore, the work enjoyed great popularity and became soon a repertory play. A few years later, Suppé composed several new interludes on the occasion of a performance for the benefit of the Emperor Franz Josef foundation at the court opera (April 15th 1873).

„Flotte Bursche"

 The story: Students of Heidelberg try to help the unfortunate courting couple Anton and Lieschen. They want to get married, but they are short of the necessary money. By dint of a ruse, the students ease Lieschen's rich and miserly guardian of a hefty sum, they give to the couple. Now, there is nothing to prevent their bliss.

Its first director Marinelli built the former theater in the Leopoldstadt in 1781. Contrary to the court theaters, local and magic farces, plays of robbers and soldiers, parodies and Singspiels were performed here above all. It was the favorite theater of the Viennese people for many years. Many famous actors and playwrights worked for this stage - among others Ferdinand Raimund, Therese Krones and Johann Nestroy. In 1838, the actor Carl Carl purchased the theater. He pulled down the old building in 1847. After a time of construction of eight months, the Carltheater was inaugurated in December 1847. From 1854 to 1860, Johann Nestroy managed the theater. Many of his plays were performed for the first time here.

„Die schöne Galathee"

 The story: Pygmalion falls in love with the marvelous statue of Galathee. Aphrodite fulfills his wish and breathes life into the statue. Whereas Galathee causes only mischief and flirts too frivolously with several men at the same time, Pygmalion asks the goddess for changing back the beautiful Galathee into a statue. The Viennese public applauded enthusiastically - the ironical treatment of mythological texts was in vogue after Offenbach's success with the „Schöne Helena".

„Leichte Kavallerie"

 The story: Hussars are billeted in an Hungarian village. One of them, Hermann, falls in love with Vilma, the most beautiful girl of the village, and she returns his love. But Vilma has many admirers: The influential men of the village are against their marriage by jealousy. But they fall a prey to a clever intrigue and have to give willy-nilly their consent to the marriage finally.

The successful operettas:
„Fatinitza", „Boccaccio", „Donna Juanita"

Since his twentieth birthday, Suppé composed continuously music for the stage. Over forty years old, he composed his first operettas, „Die schöne Galathee" stands out from them, and after many other more or less successful plays he did only in late years the jobs of his life with „Fatinitza", „Donna Juanita" and „Boccaccio", which can be regarded as his masterwork.

 All three works are based on librettos by the successful authors Zell and Genée. „F. Zell" was the pen name of Camillo Walzel (1829-1895), who came from Magdeburg and worked as feuilletonist and librettist in Vienna since 1847. Richard Genée (1823-1895), born in Danzig (Gdansk), was a composer, conductor and librettist. From 1868 to 1878, he worked as conductor at the Theater an der Wien. The two men wrote together the most famous librettos of the classical Viennese operetta. „Die Fledermaus" and „Cagliostro in Wien" by Johann Strauss as well as „Der Bettelstudent" by Karl Millöcker were composed after their texts.

„Fatinitza"

The next operetta „Boccaccio" surpassed by far the success of „Fatinitza". Its première was on February 1st 1879 at the Carltheater and it was performed without a break till March 5th 1879.

 The librettists Zell and Genée had stringed some tales of Giovanni Boccaccio's famous novella collection Il Decamerone together and put the poet himself in the center of the action.

 The story: Boccaccio, author of the Decamerone, loves Fiametta, the daughter of a duke. Despite many intrigues of his antagonist Pietro, the prince of Palermo, they became finally man and wife.

„Donna Juanita"

On February 21st 1880, „Donna Juanita" was presented at the Carltheater. The comedy „Die Verschwörung der Frauen oder die Preußen in Breslau" by the dramatist Artur Müller from Breslau (Wroclaw) serves as model for the librettists Zell and Genée. They turned the Austro-Prussian war into a Franco-English war and shifted the scene of the action to San Sebastian.

 The story: The French cadet René Dufaure dresses himself up as „Donna Juanita" to see how the land lies in San Sebastian occupied by the English troops. During a festivity, where the children are dressed up as adults and the adults are dressed up as children, the French succeed in entering incognito the city and in vanquishing the English army. The courageous Dufaure is promoted to lieutenant for his heroic deed.

 The Sophienheim

„Fatinitza" and „Boccaccio" were not only put on the stage in Vienna - they were soon performed in all parts of Europe and even in New York. His increasing fame brought Suppé invitations to the first Bayreuth Festival (1876) and to Paris, Brussels, Germany and Italy (1879). He got to know Florence, that he had never visited before, although he grew up in Italy. The success made Suppé a well-off man.

 In summer 1876, he followed his friends' advice to go on a vacation in the Lower Austrian Kamp valley. He traveled to Eggenburg and then to Gars am Kamp. As the countryside pleased him, he rented an apartment at Haangasse 27. A marble tablet reminds still today, that Suppé spent three summers (1876-1878) in this house and composed here parts of his operetta „Boccaccio".

In 1879, he bought for 1,400 guldens the house Kremserstraße 40 and rearranged it. The former farmhouse was named „Sophienheim" after Suppé's second wife. After the death of the composer, his study was turned into a museum, where his handwritten works were kept for some time, before they passed into possession of the municipal library of Vienna and the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (society of music lovers) among others. After an extensive renovation early in the seventies, the house serves again as memorial place for Franz von Suppé.

 Franz von Suppé

In summer 1882, at the age of sixty-three, Suppé gave up his occupation as conductor at the Carltheater. He left the company flat at the theater and moved to Kleinschmidgasse 1 at the 4th district. In autumn 1883, he exchanged this apartment for another in the center Laurenzerberg 5 and in November 1887 he moved to a spacious apartment at Oprenring 23, where he lived till he died. His last finished operetta was performed for the first time on March 17th 1883 at the Theater an der Wien. In the same year, Suppé conducted the work successfully in Germany.

 The death of his son Peter in November 1891 hit Suppé hard. The first signs of a serious illness became apparent. He continued to compose, worked on his last operetta „Das Modell" and wrote several religious works. But his health deteriorated rapidly. On April 18th 1895 he celebrated his 76th birthday in Vienna. He spent the next two weeks in Gars, but returned to Vienna on May 3rd. Franz von Suppé deceased on May 21st 1895, On May 23rd, the solemn consecration took place at the Augustinerkirche. The choirs of the Carlstheater and the Theater an der Wien sang Suppé's „Ruhe, müder Wanderer".
 

A monument by the sculptor Josef Tautenhayn adorns his tomb of honor at the central cemetery of Vienna (Zentralfriedhof, Ehrengrab Nr. 31, Gruppe 32A). Josef Tautenhayn.

His tomb