Richard Genée

Portrait of Richard Genée

Franz Friedrich Richard Genée (February 7, 1823 – June 15, 1895) was a Prussian born Austrian librettist, playwright, and composer. He is most famous for the libretto of Die Fledermaus, Johann Strauss II's most famous operetta. He co-wrote the libretto without having met top-billed librettist Karl Haffner, who constructed the new story based on a play by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, which was considered too shocking to perform outside Paris. Genée, however, wrote the operetta's actual text and drew nothing from Haffner beyond the names of the characters.

Genée was born in Danzig. One of his best-known works was the libretto of Karl Millöcker's operetta Der Bettelstudent, which he co-wrote with Friedrich Zell (the pseudonym of Camillo Walzel). He also wrote the libretto to Ella Adayevskaya's 1877 opera Zarya. In 1857 he was conductor of the philharmonic orchestra In Mainz.

In 1876, Genée composed the operetta Der Seekadet. The operetta featured a game of chess in its second act and later lent its name to the chess opening trap found in the match the Seekadettenmatt (German for naval cadet mate). The move is usually known in English as the Légal Trap. He died at Baden bei Wien.

Filmography

• Das fidele Gefängnis, directed by Ernst Lubitsch (Germany, 1917, loosely based on the operetta Die Fledermaus)
• Die Fledermaus, directed by Max Mack (Germany, 1923, based on the operetta Die Fledermaus)
• Nanon, directed by Hanns Schwarz (Germany, 1924, based on the operetta Nanon)
• The Beggar Student, directed by Luise Fleck and Jacob Fleck (Germany, 1927, based on the operetta Der Bettelstudent)
• The Beggar Student, directed by Victor Janson (Germany, 1931, based on the operetta Der Bettelstudent)
• The Beggar Student, directed by Victor Hanbury and John Harvel (UK, 1931, based on the operetta Der Bettelstudent)
• Die Fledermaus, directed by Karel Lamač (Germany, 1931, based on the operetta Die Fledermaus)
  • La Chauve-Souris, directed by Karel Lamač and Pierre Billon (France, 1932, based on the operetta Die Fledermaus)
• Waltz Time, directed by Wilhelm Thiele (UK, 1933, based on the operetta Die Fledermaus)
• The Loves of Madame Dubarry, directed by Marcel Varnel (UK, 1935, based on the operetta Die Dubarry)
• The Beggar Student, directed by Georg Jacoby (Germany, 1936, based on the operetta Der Bettelstudent)
• Die Fledermaus, directed by Paul Verhoeven (Germany, 1937, based on the operetta Die Fledermaus)
• Gasparone, directed by Georg Jacoby (Germany, 1937, based on the operetta Gasparone)
• Nanon, directed by Herbert Maisch (Germany, 1938, based on the operetta Nanon)
• Boccaccio, directed by Marcello Albani (Italy, 1940, based on the operetta Boccaccio)
• Die Fledermaus, directed by Géza von Bolváry (Germany, 1944–46, based on the operetta Die Fledermaus)
• A Night in Venice, directed by Georg Wildhagen (Austria, 1953, based on the operetta Eine Nacht in Venedig)
• Oh... Rosalinda!!, directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (UK, 1955, based on the operetta Die Fledermaus)
• Swelling Melodies, directed by E. W. Fiedler (East Germany, 1955, based on the operetta Die Fledermaus)
• Gasparone, directed by Karl Paryla (Austria, 1956, based on the operetta Gasparone)
• The Beggar Student, directed by Werner Jacobs (West Germany, 1956, based on the operetta Der Bettelstudent)
• Mazurka der Liebe, directed by Hans Müller (East Germany, 1957, based on the operetta Der Bettelstudent)
• Die Fledermaus, directed by Géza von Cziffra (Austria, 1962, based on the operetta Die Fledermaus)
• Flagermusen, directed by Annelise Meineche (Denmark, 1966, based on the operetta Die Fledermaus)
• Die Fledermaus, directed by Yan Frid (Soviet Union, 1979, based on the operetta Die Fledermaus)

References

• Biography from Planet Vienna Template:De icon
• »Das musikalisch-schachliche Operetten-Mysterium« by Stephan Maaß Template:De icon

External links

• Richard Genée at the Internet Broadway Database
• List of works Template:De icon
• Choir Faculty of Philosophy on YouTube from Pula, Croatia chant Italian salad - finale
• Free scores by Richard Genée in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores by Richard Genée at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)