Kálmán’s
first operetta was staged in Budapest
in 1908 and reached Vienna the following
year. By 1911 he was writing musicals
for Vienna and Die Zigeunerprimas
was staged at the Theater an der Wien
in 1912, his second operetta to be premiered
in Vienna, This was three years before
Die Csardasfurstin, perhaps his
best known work. Der Zigeunerprimas
was the first of his stage works to
reach the USA and it effectively sealed
his international reputation.
The title translates
as The Gypsy Violinist or perhaps
The Gypsy Virtuoso. The title
refers to Pali Rácz, a famous
Hungarian gypsy violinist. Rácz
was a real life figure, notorious not
only for his violin playing but for
his 36 children - in the operetta the
number is reduced to 16. Kálmán’s
Rácz is well past his glory days
and takes a Hans Sachs like role in
the romantic proceedings of his children.
Though it was Kálmán’s
second opera to be written with a German
libretto, musically it is one of his
most wistfully Hungarian; a wonderful
sense of lyric Magyar melancholy hangs
over the whole proceedings.
The plot, such as it
is, concerns the romantic entanglements
of Rácz’s daughter Sári
(Gabriele Rossmanith) as she falls in
love with a nobleman, Gaston, Count
Irini (Zoran Todorovich). There is also
by-play between Rácz’s son Laczi
(Roberto Sacca) and Juliska (Edith Lienbacher),
Rácz’s niece, complicated by
the fact that Rácz himself (Wolfgang
Bankl) has his eye on her as his 4th
wife.
Matters are made more
interesting by the musical rivalry between
Rácz and his son Laczi, culminating
in a public contest which forms the
finale to Act 2. Here Rácz displays
wonderful ‘gypsy’ virtuoso music (a
lovely section for solo violin and cimbalom),
but it is Laczi’s playing in the modern
manner which wins the day. Part of the
work’s charm is the way that, schematic
though the plot is, it refuses to embalm
its characters in a misty past. Not
only are Rácz and his song musical
rivals; their home village (the setting
for Act 1) is no romantic gypsy village,
but a positive factory for creating
gypsy musicians.
This performance, which
originates with Bayerische Rundfunk,
has the great advantage of involving
the Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
and the Slovak Philharmonic Choir. The
title role of Pali Rácz was written
for the ageing Alexander Girardi. On
the recording Wolfgang Bankl is certainly
not ageing (he made his Vienna State
Opera debut in 1993), but manages to
bring the right sense of world weariness
to the role. The two leading ladies,
Gabriele Rossmanith and Edith Leinbacher
(Sári and Juliska), have lovely
lyric soprano voices though occasionally
a little too much vibrato crept in for
my taste. Tenors Zoran Todorovich and
Roberto Sacca are their fine partners.
Todorovich’s tenor is a lyric instrument
which sounds as if it is growing more
dramatic. Occasionally it feels as if
he is reining his voice in; but he makes
and attractive leading man. Sacca’s
instrument is essentially lyric but
he can sound a little steely at the
top of his range.
All the cast have a
good feel for Kálmán’s
music and sing his music in a shapely,
stylish manner, spinning out his long-arched
melodies in a fine manner. So, though
I might have voiced concerns about their
voices in the previous paragraph, their
secure sense of style meant that I could
generally relax and enjoy the music.
The principals are well supported by
the rest of the cast.
One of the delights
of this piece is Kálmán’s
melodic flair and his rich orchestration;
the orchestra includes not only a cimbalom
but a piano as well. The Munich Radio
Symphony Orchestra relish the opportunities
that Kálmán gives them.
Conductor Claus Peter Flor has a good
feel for the right tempi.
So, in purely musical
terms, I have no qualms about recommending
this recording. But an operetta consists
of more than just the music, there is
dialogue as well. Here, the dialogue
has been replaced by a narration by
Sunnyi Melles; she not only narrates,
but speaks the dialogue in the melodramas.
I found the narrations rather intrusive
and unhelpful but was unable to eliminate
them entirely as Melles’ spoken text
often overlaps the introductions of
the musical numbers; a nice effect,
but it means you cannot eliminate her
by programming your CD player. At just
over 100 minutes, I did wonder whether
it would have been worth CPO’s while
in removing the narrations and trimming
the music to fit a single CD.
The set includes a
bonus curiosity at the end, 28 seconds
of Emmerich Kálmán speaking
about the operetta. There is no libretto
but the notes include an extensive plot
summary in English. The diction is such
that anyone with decent German should
be able to follow the solos and the
narration.
This remains a worthwhile
set to buy. The spoken narration is
a small price to pay for Kálmán’s
score which mines a vein of romantic
melancholy making this operetta such
a delight.
Robert Hugill
Children’s Chorus of Bavarian State Opera 
