Giuditta

Giuditta is an operatic musikalische Komödie (German for musical comedy) in five scenes, with music by Franz Lehár and a German libretto, by Paul Knepler and Fritz Löhner-Beda. Scored for a large orchestra, it was Lehár's last and most ambitious work, written on a larger scale than his previous operettas. Of all his works it is the one which most approaches true opera, the resemblances between the story and that of Bizet's Carmen and its unhappy ending heightening the resonances. Perhaps the best known song in the work is the soprano aria "Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiß", sung by Giuditta in the fourth scene.

The work received its first performance at the Vienna State Opera on 20 January 1934, with Jarmila Novotná and Richard Tauber in the leading roles.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere cast, 20 January 1934 (Conductor: Clemens Krauss )
Anita, a fishergirl	soprano	Margit Bokor
Antonio	baritone	Josef Knapp
Giuditta	soprano	Jarmila Novotná
Manuele Biffi, Giuditta's husband	baritone	Hermann Wiedemann
Octavio	tenor	Richard Tauber
Pierrino, a fruit seller	tenor	Georg Maikl
Professor Martini	bass	Viktor Madin
Sebastiano	tenor	Erich Zimmermann

Synopsis

The alluring Giuditta abandons her husband Manuele, and runs off with Octavio, an army officer, to North Africa. Military obligations intervene, and Octavio leaves Giuditta behind. She becomes a night club dancer, only to be discovered by Octavio, after he eventually deserts his unit. Giuditta is a success in her new profession, but Octavio's self-esteem is destroyed, and he becomes a club pianist.

Recording

• Decca GOS 583-4: Hilde Güden; Waldemar Kmentt; Murray Dickie; Emmy Loose; Walter Berry; Oscar Czerwenka; Vienna State Opera Chorus and Orchestra; Rudolf Moralt, conductor^[1]
• Original cast recordings of six numbers were made in Vienna by Odeon on 11 January 1934, with the composer conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. These include four solos by Tauber, one by Novotná, and their duet "Schön wie die blaue Sommernacht".

References

Notes

1. Lamb, Andrew, "Record Reviews: Giuditta" (July 1970). The Musical Times, 111 (1529): pp. 717–718.

Sources

• Amadeus Almanac, accessed 30 October 2008 (Italian)
• Lamb, Andrew, "Giuditta", The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ISBN 0-333-73432-7

External links

• Giuditta, extensive synopsis, performance details
• "Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiß", Danielle de Niese, TED July 2011
• Giuditta (1970) at the Internet Movie Database with Teresa Stratas, Rudolf Schock