FULL Auf den Spuren von Lehárs Zarewitsch Documentary Vienna 2000 Marcel Prawy, José Carreras, Jan Kiepura, Martha Eggert

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Auf den Spuren von Lehárs Zarewitsch  
• Composer: Lehar Franz  
• Libretto: Heinz Reichert, Bela Jenbach  
• Venue & Opera Company: various  
• Recorded: 2000
• Type: Other
• Singers: Teresa Stratas, Wieslaw Ochmann, Jose Carreras, Jan Kiepura, Martha Eggert, Hilde Güden, Richard Tauber
• Conductor: various  
• Orchestra: various  
• Stage Director:   
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: ORF  
• Date Published: 2000  
• Format: Broadcast
• Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
• Subtitles: nosubs  
• Video Recording from: YouTube     FULL VIDEO
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

Quote from Wikipedia:
Der Zarewitsch (The Tsarevich) is an operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár. The German libretto by Heinz Reichert [de] and Bela Jenbach is based on the play of the same name by Polish author Gabriela Zapolska. One of his later operettas, Lehár composed the work as a vehicle for Richard Tauber, the acclaimed Austrian tenor. The work received its first performance at the Deutsches Künstlertheater in Berlin on 16 February 1927, with Tauber and Rita Georg in the leading roles.

Synopsis
The plot of Der Zarewitsch is loosely based on a true story: the self-imposed exile of the son of Peter the Great, Alexei, who shirked his father’s command to become a monk or take interest in the military by running away to his brother-in-law’s kingdom, the Holy Roman Empire, with his Finnish mistress disguised as a page. The couple spent two years in hiding until Alexei was compelled by his father to return. His father was paranoid that Alexei was conspiring against him and ultimately Alexei ended up being imprisoned and tortured. The Russian senate convicted him of conspiring against his father and he was sentenced to death. He died due to ill health before he could be executed, most likely resulting from the poor treatment he received while imprisoned.

Reichert’s libretto differs on several points from the life of Alexei. First, he changed the story so that the young girl, Sonja, is first seen disguised as a male Circassian dancer. When the Tsarevich runs away with Sonja he believes that she is a boy adding what Richard Traubner of Opera News called an “underlying homosexual frisson” to the operetta.[This quote needs a citation] Eventually the young prince discovers that Sonja is in fact a girl disguised as a boy. The two fall in love and escape to Naples. A further major difference is that the operetta does not have such a tragic ending, though it is not exactly happy either. Eventually the Zarewitsch learns that his father has died and he knows his relationship cannot continue with Sonja as he is now the Tsar. The operetta ends with a “bittersweet royal–commoner parting”.