Les Savojardes Overture

The overture to the operetta "The two Savoyards" represents the period in which operettas written by Jacques Offenbach in the 19th century triggered the development of an independent Viennese operetta. Offenbach opened the second summer season of his theatre in Paris in 1856 with the one-act "Le 66" (German: "Nummer 66").

The play came to Vienna only a few years later, where it fell on fertile ground, because the Carltheater and the Theater an der Wien had meanwhile proved to be the institutions that successfully published plays based on French models. As a rule, they were not only translated, but also redesigned, since Offenbach's actions generally lampooned the conditions of the Second Empire with wit and parody. This fate was consequently also experienced by the one-act "Number 66", which was transferred in Vienna to the "Two Savoyards" and its plot from the Stuttgart area to France, and the nationality of the leading actors was also changed, for the Tyroleans became the Savoyards Suzon and Piccolo.

With a few exceptions, Jacques Offenbach's music has disappeared from our stages, and so Siegfried Rundel's adaptation of the Overture of the One Actor is an important cultural move for the symphonic wind orchestra in that it not only presents the wind instruments and their repertoire with a completely unknown piece, but also reminds us of an important phase in the musical history that led to the Vienna operetta.