Song no. 6 “In the cowshed” (yodellers, milkers, men’s quartet, stable boys’, cobblers, maids’ ballet) Rustic and coarse.
This is the title of the folk interlude in scene three; Act one of the famous silver operetta Im Weißen Rössl. Actually, it is about a small, quiet rendezvous of two big-city guests in the cowshed, arranged by the head waiter Leopold, who is unhappily in love. But it is operetta after all: enjoyable entertainment, surprises, the foxtrot and above all contrasts! In 1931, for the premiere at Berlin’s Großes Schauspielhaus, the Austrian forest covering the cowshed had been constructed by Ernst Stern to inflate. Sinking together, the trees revealed the view of the cowshed with all the dancing and singing “girls” and “boys” in lewd costumes ..
However there are only two of us with our puppets. Our director Holger Brüns really wanted this song to be part of the production, and our set designer Martin Buchin were undaunted. Martin Buchin immediately grasped that the lovers Ottilie and Dr. Siedler were not concerned with “back to nature”. He invented our blue and white cow with red high heels, striped tail and with the ‘natural’ udder. The fact that this important milk-giving organ has one teat too many and wears a wedding ring has never occurred to the two lovers anyway in their whole blue sky world …
BEAUTIFUL IS YOUR COAT,
BUT MORE GORGEOUS IS YOUR FORM
A FEAST FOR THE EYE’S IS YOUR POISE,
WHEN THE FLIES DO NOT TORMENT YOU.
YES, AND YOU ARE,
WHAT A MAIDEN NEVER IS:
ALWAYS FULL OF CHEER AND FULL OF MILK!
OUT OF WHICH WHIP WE OUR CREAM.
LATE OR EARLY
TO THE GREEN MENU
YOU SAVOR WATER IN LIEU OF BEER,
BECAUSE YOU HAVE A STRONG BELLY!
DEAREST ANIMAL,
AND AS A THANK YOU
THEY MAKE A DISH OF YOUR HEART AND LUNGS.
A COW LIKE YOU IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING IN THE WORLD!
A COW, LIKE YOU, FILLS ME WITH PEACE!
NOW AND THEN YOU SAY MOO,
AND AT TIMES SWING YOUR HEAD THERE AND HERE.
A COW LIKE YOU REMAINS THE QUEEN OF BEAUTY.
IM WEISSEN RÖSSL
Odd version of the Operetta with puppets, cowshed, lightning, thunder and live singing
by the KOBALT Figurentheater Lübeck
freely adapted from the comedy by Oskar Blumenthal and Gustav Kadelburg by Hans
Müller and Eric Charell, lyrics by Robert Gilbert, music by Ralph Benatzky
MARIONETTES: Barbara and Günter Weinhold
STAGE DESIGN: Martin Buchin, Denise Sheila Puri, Stephan Schlafke
DIRECTOR: Holger Brüns
MUSICAL DIRECTION: Dietmar Staskowiak
PLAY: Silke Technau and Stephan Schlafke
0 Comments