PAUL ABRAHAM (1892\u20131960): \u00abDIE BLUME VON HAWAII\u00bb (the flower of Hawaii) operetta in three acts (Libretto: Alfred Gr\u00fcnwald, Fritz L\u00f6hner-Beda and Emmerich F\u00f6ldes)<\/p>\n
Production of Theater Basel, Schauspiel<\/p>\n
Premiere (cancelled!): 28th of September 2017, Grosse B\u00fchne, 19.30 h<\/p>\n
Further performances: 1. \/ 7. \/ 15. \/ 20. \/ 23. \/ 27. \/ 29. \/ 31. October, 4. \/ 18. \/ 26. November, 8. \/ 14. December 2017, 7. \/ 13. \/19. January 2018<\/p>\n
“Ein Paradies am Meeresstrand” (A paradise on the seashore) and \u201cWill dir die Welt zu F\u00fcssen legen\u201d (Will lay the world at your feet) are just two unforgettable evergreens that Paul Abraham composed for his revue operetta \u201cDie Blume von Hawaii\u201d. He and his librettists were inspired by the fate of the last queen of Hawaii, who was disempowered by the Americans and went down in music history as the composer of “Aloha Oe\u201d, to relocate a large part of the plot to an unreachable fantasy location.<\/p>\n
Hawaiian nationalists plan to liberate the island from the American occupiers and bring Princess Laya from exile in Paris incognito to marry her off to Prince Lilo-Taro. The American governor, on the other hand, dreams of marrying him to his niece. A champagne-fuelled love merry-go-round begins to spin, with an officer, the governor’s secretary, an entertainer and a young Hawaiian woman also jumping on board. The colourful company ends up in Europe, in sophisticated Monte Carlo, where four couples will get together.<\/p>\n
Although the starting point is a political conflict, the creators were primarily concerned with entertainment. They catered to the need for exoticism and romance with aplomb, for the eyes and ears. On the one hand, people indulged in the dream of an idealised South Seas world, but at the same time hoped for a great future, for modernity from America.<\/p>\n
Abraham, the “operetta king of Berlin”, a contemporary of Brecht and Weill, whose “Threepenny Opera” is also on the programme this season, had to flee the National Socialist regime two years after the premiere. In his composition he masterfully combines operetta melodies with elements of jazz, which made Berlin pulsate at the time.<\/p>\n
J\u00fcrg Henneberger and the Ensemble Phoenix Basel, proven specialists in new music, set out together with the singing theatre ensemble in search of a “sound” that on the one hand purifies the lavishly orchestrated score and on the other resurrects the jazzy, playful spirit of the Weimar Republic. Experienced in uncovering the ironic facets of the operetta, director Frank Hilbrich is interested in showing how the unfulfilled longings for the past and future become a failure in the present.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Conductor, Fender Rhodes Piano: J\u00fcrg Henneberger
\nStaging: Frank Hilbrich
\nMusical sssistence, choir direction & assistant conductor (23.\/27.10.\/18.11.): Oliver Rudin
\nStage: Volker Thiele
\nCostumes: Gabriele Rupprecht
\nChoreography: Kinsun Chan
\nLight: Roland Edrich
\nDramaturgy: Almut Wagner<\/p>\n
Laya, princess of Hawaii: Pia H\u00e4ndler
\nPrince Lilo-Taro: Florian Jahr
\nKaluna, an old Hawaiian: Andrea Bettini
\nCaptain Reginald Harald Stone: Elias Eilinghoff
\nLloyd Harrison, american governor of Hawaii: Mario Fuchs
\nJohn Buffy, his secretary: Thomas Reisinger
\nBessie Worthington, his niece: Katja Jung
\nRaka, a joung Hawaiian: Leonie Merlin Young
\nJim Boy, a famous american jazz singer: Vincent Glander
\nSusanne Provence, his partner: Pia H\u00e4ndler
\nPerroquet, head waitor and bar pianist: J\u00fcrg Henneberger \/ Oliver Rudin<\/p>\n
Choir:<\/p>\n
Diana Chavarro (soprano)
\nAlexandra Mira Puertas (soprano)
\nJulia Schild (soprano)
\nAya Tsujimoto (soprano)
\nSylvia \u00abSylphe\u00bb Heckendorn (alto)
\nFrancisca N\u00e4f (alto)
\nAnne Maria Schmid (alto)
\nAngelika Wied (alto)
\nAlejandro Benavides Urena (tenor)
\nTarik Benchekmoumou (tenor)
\nAdrian Borter (tenor)
\nDonovan Elliot Smith (tenor)
\nThomas Hardegger (bass)
\nSebastian Kn\u00fcsli (bass)
\nDaniel Raaflaub (bass)
\nTianyou Wang (bass)<\/p>\n
Ensemble Phoenix Basel:<\/p>\n
Christoph B\u00f6sch, Anja Clift: flute \/ piccolo
\nToshiko Sakakibara, Dana Barack: clarinet \/ bass clarinet
\nSascha Armbruster, Pablo Gonz\u00e1lez: saxophone 1 (alto \/ baritone)
\nKevin Juillerat, Jonas Tschanz: saxophone 2 (tenor)
\nJens Bracher, Simon Lilly: trumpet 1
\nMichael Ferner: trumpet 2
\nMichael B\u00fcttler, Stephen Menotti: trombone
\nJo\u00e3o Pacheco, Daniel Stalder: percussion
\nMaurizio Grandinetti: guitar \/ banjo \/ Hawaii-guitar
\nLudovic Van Hellemont, Dominic Chamot: piano \/ celesta
\nMirka \u0160\u0107epanovi\u0107, Friedemann Treiber: violin 1
\nMarzena Toczko, Filip Saffray: violin 2
\nSusanne Mathe, Daniel Hauptmann: violin 3
\nLisa Rieder, Susanne Mathe: violin 4
\nJan-Filip \u0164upa, Joonas Pitk\u00e4nen: cello
\nAleksander Gabry\u015b, Daniel Sailer: double bass<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PAUL ABRAHAM (1892\u20131960): \u00abDIE BLUME VON HAWAII\u00bb (the flower of Hawaii) operetta in three acts (Libretto: Alfred Gr\u00fcnwald, Fritz L\u00f6hner-Beda and Emmerich F\u00f6ldes) Production of Theater Basel, Schauspiel Premiere (cancelled!): 28th of September 2017, Grosse B\u00fchne, 19.30 h Further performances: 1. \/ 7. \/ 15. \/ 20. \/ 23. \/ 27. \/ 29. \/ 31. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[267],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-theatre"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ensemble-phoenix.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ensemble-phoenix.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ensemble-phoenix.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ensemble-phoenix.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ensemble-phoenix.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5982"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ensemble-phoenix.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5986,"href":"https:\/\/ensemble-phoenix.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5982\/revisions\/5986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ensemble-phoenix.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ensemble-phoenix.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ensemble-phoenix.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}