"Post tease" afterthought: If you listened to the performances of Suppé's Fatinitza Overture in last week's "post tease," did any particular word come to mind?

I did provide notice in the above-mentioned "post tease" ("Well, why shouldn't we listen to the [at very rough guess] 8th- or 9th-best Suppé overture?") that I'd be asking the above-posed question.

In its day, Suppé's now-largely-forgotten operetta
Fatinitza was a sort of international sensation.

IN CASE IT'D HELP TO HEAR THE PERFORMANCES AGAIN
(THIS TIME WITH SOME COMPACT DESCRIPTIVE NOTES) --

FRANZ VON SUPPÉ: Fatinitza: Overture


Zestful and pungent: Hungarian State Orchestra, János Sándor, cond. From a Hungaroton-Laserlight CD of Suppé overtures

Classy, possibly even elegant: Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Charles Dutoit, cond. From a Decca CD of Suppé overtures
Frothy, breathless, maybe downright lickety-split: Boston Pops Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler, cond. From the Boston Pops' RCA sequel LP More Classical Music for People Who Hate Classical Music

MAX SCHÖNHERR (arr.): 'Marziale' [i.e., a "martial" or military-ish piece] on themes from the operetta 'Fatinitza'

Always dependably musical: Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Neeme Järvi, cond. From a Chandos super-CD (89 minutes' worth!) of Suppé

by Ken

Before we proceed, I note that on the AllMusic website James Reel has gone to some length to describe the Overture for us. While we may quibble with some of the details ("like a chicken clucking"?), I think we have to applaud the effort.

The shining star of Viennese operetta in the 1860s, Suppé was temporarily eclipsed at the beginning of the next decade by the emergence of the younger Johann Strauss as a stage composer. Suppé returned to public favor in 1876 with Fatinitza, an operetta set during the 1854-1855 Russo-Turkish war; the libretto, ironically, was one of Strauss' rejects. The overture begins sternly, with very subtle hints at both military marches and Turkish music without breaking into either. The main theme here is a little march, almost Tyrolean, that sounds like a chicken clucking. One of Suppé's typically tumultuous transitions leads to quiet but fully Turkish music, complete with triangle. The exoticism falls away almost immediately for a grand, romantic theme, although the Turkish march soon returns in full force, leading to more tumult. Another whimsical march arrives, this one sounding like a Russian folk tune. A transition of conventional operetta chugging leads to yet another march, one worthy of the Strausses; this is the work's sprightly hit tune "Vorwärts mit frischem Muth" ("Forward with renewed courage"), which is sometimes played as a separate concert piece.

Okay, back to business! Did you come up with "a" word for the Fatinitza Overture? Probably mine is obvious by now, so rather than tell you, I'm going to play it for you.


A WORD OF WARNING: ONCE THIS MARCH GETS IN
YOUR HEAD, IT MAY NOT BE EASILY GOTTEN OUT

In this early electrical recording -- see, it says on the label "Elektrische Aufnahme"! -- the "Grammophon" Wind Orchestra plays the Fatinitza March, with appropriate thanks to poster "Musik Damals" (roughly "Music Back Then"). One way of gauging the "international sensation" that Fatinitza became is the currency of arrangements of excerpts back in the day when there weren't recordings yet -- and then, as we hear here, when there were.

Now, in case it isn't obvious, my word is "march"! ("Marziale" would be good too, I think.) And I mean for the Overture as a whole, because even when it veers into other material, it never strays far from the world of the march. Here are two more up-to-date, very differently edited versions:

SUPPÉ: Fatinitza March ("Vorwärts mit frischem Muth" --
"Forward with Fresh Courage")


Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Neeme Järvi, cond. From that 89-minute Järvi-Chandos "super-CD," recorded Apr. 18-19, 2012

Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Richard Hayman, cond. From the Naxos CD Majestic Marches, recorded 1989


FYI: LAST WEEK I DUCKED OUT OF TRYING
TO EXPLAIN WHAT FATINITZA IS ALL ABOUT

So, here's a plot synopsis, from the Wikipedia article on the operetta. You may be sorry you asked.

Before the piece begins, Wladimir Samoiloff, a young Russian Lieutenant, had an adventure in which he ended up disguising himself as a woman (whom he named Fatinitza), and met with the hot-tempered elderly General Kantschukoff, who fell in love with his disguise. Wladimir, however, is in love with the General's niece, Lydia.

The operetta opens on a camp of Russian soldiers near Rustchuk, where Wladimir has been assigned. His friend, Julian, a special newspaper correspondent, is mistaken for a spy and dragged to the camp, but Wladimir defuses the situation. Julian and Wladimir reminisce about his Fatinitza disguise, which eventually leads the soldiers to consider some amateur theatre, to relieve the boredom. As no women are present, Wladimir resumes his Fatinitza disguise.

The General arrives, and recognises "Fatinitza" as his lost love, and Wladimir finds himself needing to play along in order to protect his men from the general's anger at the theatrical costumes, which are not the regulation uniform. His niece Lydia soon arrives, and recognises Wladimir under the disguise. Julian tells the two that Fatinitza is Wladimir's sister. The general temporarily leaves the three to see how the other soldiers are getting on, but, as the first act ends, a band of bashi-bazouks manage to catch the camp by surprise, and take "Fatinitza" and Lydia prisoner. Julian scrambles the Russian soldiers to return the attack, but the General refuses to allow them to fire, lest they hit Fatinitza.

The second act opens in the Turkish fortress, run by Izzit Pascha. Pascha has four wives, and wishes to add Lydia to his harem. His wives are highly upset at this, and "Fatinitza" persuades them to aid in his and Lydia's escape, revealing his true identity at the end.

Julian and a Russian Sergeant, Steipann, arrive to attempt to negotiate Lydia and "Fatinitza"'s freedom, but Pascha will only release Lydia. However, Wladimir is able to pass on a message, and, while Julian distracts Pascha, Steipann arranges for the soldiers to slip into the fortress, effecting a rescue.

However, all is not well with the love triangle as the third act opens. The General sent out news of rewards should Fatinitza be found, and has now received word that she has been found (much to Julian and Wladimir's confusion). As Lydia lives with him, the General, unaware of Wladimir's love for her, but wanting to be alone with Fatinitza, has promised Lydia in marriage to an old, crippled friend of his, who had the advantage of being available for marriage. He does not want to break his word to his friend, but when Wladimir announces he has promised his "sister" to one of his friends, the General agrees to break Lydia's betrothal if Wladimir will break Fatinitza's.

The promised Fatinitza arrives, but turns out to be an old woman of the same name. Julian and Wladimir produce a letter from the "real" Fatinitza, "discovering" that she died of grief when separated from the General. In her memory, he gives his niece to "Fatinitza's brother."

WHY DOES THE FATINITZA MARCH MATTER SO MUCH?
IT HAS TO DO WITH THE VIENNA NEW YEAR'S CONCERT

The question, in other words, is: Why am I making such a big deal out of this? I think maybe the working title for the post toward which we've been working may sort-of-explain:

"Before Jan. 1, 2021, no Vienna New Year's audience had heard Suppé's snappy Fatinitza March (and several other pieces). PBS New Year's audiences still haven't"

You may recall from that January 10 post my description of the excited state in which I approached this year's PBS Vienna New Year's Concert telecast the evening of January 1 -- excitement heightened by the fact that, well, I think the title of the post told the story:

"For the first time ever, this year I went into the Vienna New Year's Concert armed with a listing of the program contents!"

This great development came about because early in December I'd happened to be rooting around Riccardo Muti's website, RiccardoMuti.com, not even knowing that several weeks hence Maestro Muti would be conducting his sixth Vienna New Year's Concert, dating back to 1993. And there was the news item, complete with the scheduled program! (The link is to the still-live -- as of this writing -- "New Year's Concert" page of the English-language version of the website.)

Here's the start of the program more or less the way I'd copied and printed it out (yeah, I've done a tiny bit of touching up):

New Year’s Concert 2021:
Friday, 1st January, at 11:15 am

Program

Franz von Suppé

Fatinitza March

Johann Strauß (Son)

Schallwellen (Sound Waves), Waltz, op. 148

Johann Strauß (Son)

Niko Polka, op. 228

Josef Strauß

Ohne Sorgen (Without a Care), Fast Polka, op. 271

Carl Zeller

Grubenlichter (Davy Lamps), Waltz

Carl Millöcker

In Saus und Braus (Living It Up), Galop

— BREAK —

These six pieces have something in common, and that something is the subject of the post-to-come, which will be coming, well, any hour now, if not sooner -- or, um, possibly later. In other words, when it comes -- if you've been here before, you kind of know how this works. Over all the weeks I've been stewing about this, I've written and assembled a plethora of fragments of various sorts targeted for the post-to-be. Now I've got to try to track down as many of them as I can, and as needed re-create the ones I can recall but can't find. Stay tuned.

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