On 5 April 1874 Johann Strauss’s operetta Die Fledermaus (The Bat) had its premiere in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, at a time when the Viennese still had all too unpleasant memories of the stock exchange crash of 9 May 1873 and the gigantic deficit of nineteen million gulden made by the World Exhibition held in Vienna in the same year. Many of them may thus have seen a thoroughly positive side to a view of life such as that sung about in Alfred’s drinking song in the finale of the first act of the operetta Die Fledermaus, ‘Happy is he who forgets what can no longer be changed,’ that is to say not worrying about either the past or the future but living exclusively for the moment. The same attitude to life is described by the Spanish writer Baltasar Gracián y Morales in his Oracolo manual, published in 1674, two hundred years earlier. The educated bourgeoisie of Vienna may well have known about Gracían’s work, as a new translation by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer had been published in 1862. The polka mazurka, ‘Glücklich ist, wer vergisst’ is one of six dances arranged from the melodies of the operetta Die Fledermaus. The publication of the piano edition was announced in the morning edition of the Tages-Presse newspaper on 11 October 1874 with the comment that the polka mazurka was ‘already very well-known from the performances of Mr Eduard Strauss’s orchestra’, that is to say that its first performance must have taken place at an earlier date, probably in the summer or autumn of 1874. Synopsis: Prof. Norbert Rubey
Friday, 01. May 201511.00 o' clock Vienna ⁄ Musikverein ⁄ The Große Musikvereinssaal
Concert for National Holiday
Alfred Eschwé conductor Anita Goetz soprano
Program Johann Strauss II : Overture to the Operetta «Indigo and the Forty Thieves» Gaetano Donizetti : Aria of Norina «So anch'io la virtú», from the Opera «Don Pasquale» Josef Strauss : Artists's Greeting / Polka française op. 274 Josef Strauss : Jockey / Quick polka op. 278 Josef Strauss : Delirien / Waltz op. 212 Johann Strauss II : « Happy Is He Who Forgets!», Polka Mazurka op. 368 Giacomo Puccini : Aria of Lauretta «O mio babbino caro», from the opera «Gianni Schicchi» Johann Strauss II : City Hall Ball Dances / Waltz op. 438 Break Franz von Suppè : Overture to the Operetta «Pique Dame» Johann Strauss II : Arie der Annina «Was mir der Zufall gab» aus der Operette «Eine Nacht in Venedig» Johann Strauss II : Enjoy Life! / Waltz op. 340 Johann Strauss II : March of Rejoicing at the Deliverance of Emperor Franz Joseph I op. 126 Johann Strauss II : Artists Quadrille op. 201 Johann Strauss II : Tick Tock / Quick polka op. 365 Franz Lehár : «Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiß», Song from Operetta «Giuditta» Franz Lehár : Gold and Silver / Waltz op. 79 Encore Johann Strauss II : Hunting / Quick polka op. 373 Johann Strauss I : Radetzky March op. 228
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