FULL ANIMALEN (Werle) Gothenburg 1981 Elisabeth Erikson, Rune Zetterström, Toni Mohr, Enzo Florimo

Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Animalen  
- Composer: Werle Lars Johan   
- Libretto: Tage Danielsson    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Stora Teatern, Göteborg, Sweden  
- Recorded: September 6, 1981
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Elisabeth Erikson, Rune Zetterström, Toni Mohr, Enzo Florimo, Marianne Johansson, Gudrun Henricsson, Esaias Tewolde-Berhan
- Conductor: Gary Berkson  
- Orchestra: Stora Teaterns Orkester  
- Chorus: Stora Teaterns Kör  
- Stage Director: Hans Alfredson  
- Stage Designer: Hans Alfredson  
- Costume Designer: Hans Alfredson  
Information about the Recording
- Published by: SVT  
- Date Published: 1981  
- Format: Broadcast
- Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
- Subtitles: nosubs  
- Video Recording from: SVT     FULL VIDEO
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Animalen is an operetta (musical fable ) in two acts with music by Lars Johan Werle and libretto by Tage Danielsson . It premiered at Stora Teatern in Gothenburg in 1979, and later productions have been made in Malmö , Stockholm , Oslo and Copenhagen , among others . The plot revolves around the then current world politics which is presented in fable format. The cast includes ministers, diplomats and entertainers from mainly the USA and the Soviet Union .
Action
The operetta takes place in the present day, with the first act on the “plain west of Tibet ” and the second act in Vienna . All the animals in the world are concerned about the human arms race and call for a congress where the people from the East and the West are held accountable. When the initiative is taken, the Penguin comments on this with the words “Applause, hissing, and more. A snake cannot applaud.” Unfortunately, it turns out that the human (?) rulers do not want to lose face in front of each other and therefore are unable to deal with the situation. The foreign ministers of both blocs dance a balance schottis in which they explain to the animals with joint efforts that “We must think about the balance of power, we must bite our own tail. I must be at least as strong as he is. We must be stronger than each other.”
The animals come up with the brilliant solution, to marry off the East to the West, a solution that will however be more difficult to implement than what the animals had in mind. Not because the two contractors from East and West would have any problems with the marriage, but because politicians and diplomats are putting a spoke in the wheel.
During the first act, the orchestra played from their traditional place in the ditch, while in the second they were placed on stage and in some scenes even transformed into a small intimate nightclub ensemble playing at the club Paxim (Danielsson’s pun on the club Maxim and the Latin word for peace – pax).
The wedding that seems impossible in the first act actually falls through in the second, as Gustav Lejon sings “People become wiser from love.” The entire operetta ends with a cantata for penguins, soloists, choir and orchestra on the theme “When the kind man is cursed, he becomes angry with the news” before the entire ensemble takes the stage and sings a goodnight song to the audience.