Sometimes the second performance offers even more sensation than the premiere. In this case it is like this at the Staatstheater Nürnberg: Baron Puck, the singer in the role, fell ill, after which Yascha Finn Nolting took over the role and played on stage, while she sang Ivan Oreščanin from the side box. Nolting is a member of the acting ensemble in Nuremberg, now he walks around with a libretto, which nobody would notice if you didn’t know, because he plays with it as well as he always plays, and besides, the whole hustle and bustle here is so fast, that the libretto could also be just one production idea among thousands.
Jacques Offenbach brought out his operetta “The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein” in 1967 and rewrote it after the premiere. Offenbach was a theater pragmatist, if something didn’t work, he changed it. And fast. The success came just as quickly, which also attracted many crowned heads on the occasion of a world exhibition in Paris, although they in particular are being made fun of, but in a way that they could laugh about it. A bit of Parisian Nockherberg, but abstract, universal, very funny, which is also due to the libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. The music is crazy anyway, rumbles and cracks, gallops at a gallop, parodies the military and can also be magical. In Nuremberg it definitely is, Lutz de Veer leads the Staatsphilharmonie in a compact line-up with tremendous verve, light as a feather and precise, extraordinarily musical.
The Grand Duchess is bored, and General Boom invents a war to keep her from getting involved in politics. The diversion works halfway as the Grand Duchess is also a bit man-mad, leading to greater imbroglio. She doesn’t want the prince Bumm chose for her, wants Fritz, but he wants his Wanda. Intrigues and murder plans follow, but it doesn’t get that bad.
Andreas Kriegenburg turns it into a ludicrous office farce, populated with enterprising working lemurs and exuberant courtiers. For this, Harald Thor builds a fabulous archive on the stage, which often changes and flaunts old-fashioned technology. So the Grand Duchess is going to the archives to play war games, what a lovely thought at this time. She herself, Eleonore Marguerre, is a show, sharp and fast, crazy and clever. Sometimes it seems like the parody of a parody, and if necessary, it also completely unpretentiously doesn’t give a damn about beautiful sound.
In general, everyone here goes to work with the greatest energy, fired up by Kriegenburg’s choreographic staging, which is interspersed with an infinite number of ideas. The three hours are still a bit long, despite the speed, despite the polished dialogues. It’s basically about nothing – but with the great seriousness of great comedies. The cast is really fun: Martin Platz (Fritz) is an unstoppable comedian, Chloë Morgan develops an emancipatory furor as Wanda. In general, there is little plaited here, rather funny: Hans Gröning as the famous Bumm, the actor Pius Maria Cüppers as the keeper of the archive, and then there is the high-spirited choir. This is how you can make operettas today.