Der Zigeunerbaron was the first Viennese operetta set in Hungary and whose main characters were Hungarians and Gypsies. Although this may seem like a bold political gesture at a time when many Viennese felt the influx of Hungarians into Vienna threatened the city's political and financial stability, the context in which Strauss and Schnitzer frame their Hungarian characters preserves the Austrian sense of superiority. Der Zigeunerbaron is based on Saffi, a novella by the Hungarian Mór Jókai. Ignaz Schnitzer, in Vienna, developed a libretto from Jókai's scenario, while Franz Jauner, director of the Theater-an-der-Wien, secured the rights to the work and planned its production. Der Zigeunerbaron made its way to the stage very slowly; its premiere was on October 24, 1885, two and a half years after Strauss agreed to work on the project. Jauner traveled to Hungary to obtain Gypsy costumes, horses, and carriages for the lavish production. Both the music and libretto of Der Zigeunerbaron present images of Hungary and Gypsies through stereotypes that would have been recognized by contemporary Viennese. For example, Strauss aurally evokes Gypsy culture through the use of an anvil, cymbals, and gong, while Schnitzer and Jauner create Gypsy blacksmiths who wear bright clothing and can see the future.

Strauss' overture immediately transports the listener eastward with chromatic motives and unusual orchestration. The curtain rises on a chorus of gondoliers singing of marriage and partnership, but the political undertones of the text become clear as the boatmen tell nearby Gypsy women, "trust your boat without fear, although it may rock." Barinkay's return to claim his land at the opening of Act One is a representation of the wealthy Hungarians who had fled during the 1848 revolution, only to return later and rise to positions of power. Barinkay's Gypsy background becomes clear in his entrance couplet, "Als flotter Geist" ("A lively spirit"), as he describes how he befriended wild animals and told fortunes. Contemporary viewers would have immediately associated these characteristics, as well as the accompaniment by oboes and pizzicato strings, with Gypsies. However, when Barinkay pleads his sincerity, the music changes to a Viennese waltz, just as many wealthy Hungarians of the nineteenth century had shifted their allegiance from their homeland to Vienna. One of Strauss' most effective evocations of Hungarian life is Homonay's verbunkos of Act Two, a dance style derived from the method of recruiting troops in Hungary in the eighteenth century. Perhaps the ultimate expression of Austrian hegemony expressed in Der Zigeunerbaron is the setting of the third act. After all the fuss and fortune-telling of the first two acts, the moment of triumph and climax occurs not in Hungary but in Vienna, at the return of the victorious army from Spain. Furthermore, the army is explicitly referred to as "Austrian," despite the fact that many of its members are Hungarian Gypsies. When it becomes clear that the Gypsies Saffi and Barinkay can legally marry, the crowd sings not a Hungarian Czardas, but a Viennese waltz.

© All Music Guide

Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron), overture to the operetta

This is another of Johann Strauss Jr.'s sparkling overtures that tantalizes the audience with the themes and melodies that await them in the operetta.

Die Zigeunerbaron was a project of Strauss, the German-Hungarian author Ignaz Schnitzer, and Hungarian writer, Jókai Mór. They began working on it in late 1883. Schnitzer, with input from Jókai, developed the libretto from Jókai's novel, Saffi. Early in 1885, Schnitzer threatened to give the libretto to Franz von Suppé or another composer since Strauss was unusually slow in composing the music. Strauss got the message. The operetta finally premiered on 25 October 1885, the eve of Strauss' 60th birthday.

The story concerns Sandor Barinkay who, returning from Austria to his birth land of Hungary, finds his father's castle in ruins and the rest of the estate being used by gypsies and a pig-farmer. The gypsies proclaim him a baron. Saffi, daughter of the gypsy Czipra, helps Barinkay find treasure in the castle. Saffi is then revealed to be a princess; Barinkay, despite his new-found wealth and nobility, declines to marry her. He joins the Hungarian army, goes to war, later returning to marry Saffi.

The overture begins with the distinctive rhythms and minor mode rhapsodic music that evokes Hungary, as heard in Liszt's and Brahms' works based on folk music. Dramatic pauses and a flute cadenza connect the chorus melody (a somewhat syncopated, minor key quasi-march) and the melody sung by Saffi (here, by the oboe), welcoming Barinkay back to the land of his birth, the gypsies' homeland, at the end of Act I. This is followed by the "knock, knock, knock on each stone" as Barinkay, Saffi, and Czipra search for the treasure in Barinkay's castle in Act II. The knocking is distinct in the polka tune. A melodramatic intermezzo (which is strange in that it can be found only in the vocal score, not in the operetta's normal orchestral score) leads into the familiar, lighthearted, swinging Schatz (Treasure) Waltz. Three very brief references are heard next, all contrasting the brass and woodwind sections with the strings. First is an orchestral interlude from the finale of Act I, where the steady rhythm of the melody is supported by a dotted rhythm chordal harmony; second is a few bars of the "recruiting" song from Act II, the determination of the recruiters obvious in the martial sounding tune (a Hungarian theme given to Strauss by Jókai); third is an Andantino section of the chorus of boatmen that opens the operetta, with the rocking waves of the sea of life evident in the music. The overture finishes with the running scales, typical of Strauss' codas, then a direct quote of the syncopated Allegro found in the finale of Act I.

Johann's brother, Eduard, premiered the concert performance of this work, two weeks after the operetta's opening, and it has since been a standard in the Viennese concert repertoire.

© Patsy Morita, Rovi