Leichte Kavallerie

Leichte Kavallerie
Operetta by Franz von Suppé
The composer of the operetta, c. 1885
Translation	Light Cavalry
Librettist	Karl Costa
Language	German
Premiere	21 March 1866 Carltheater, Vienna

Leichte Kavallerie (Light Cavalry) is an operetta in two acts by Franz von Suppé, with a libretto by Karl Costa. It was first performed in the Carltheater, Vienna, on 21 March 1866.

The original work is set in an 19th-century Austrian village where several love intrigues and the discovery of a father-daughter relationship are accompanied by the arrival of a regiment of hussars. In 1934, Hans Bodenstedt completely rewrote the operetta. It was set in the 18th century amid the court intrigues of a Baron and his Hungarian Countess lover, whose ballet company is referred to as the "light cavalry".

While much of the operetta remains in relative obscurity, the Light Cavalry Overture is one of Suppé's best known works. The music from the operetta was used as the soundtrack of a film of the same name in 1935.^[1]

Roles

	Overture The overture to Leichte Kavallerie, played by the United States Marine Band
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Role	Voice type	Premiere cast, 21 March 1866 (Conductor: –)
Bums, the mayor	bass
Apollonia, his wife	contralto
Jimber Pankraz, a grocer	spoken
Eulalia, his wife	mezzo-soprano
Weissling, the baker	spoken
Dorothea, his daughter	soprano
Kitt, a glazier	spoken
Regina, his daughter	soprano
Vilma, an orphan	soprano
Hermann, Vilma's lover	tenor
Janos, a hussar	bass
Stefan, a hussar
Carol, a hussar

References

1. Light Cavalry (1935) at the Internet Movie Database

External links

• Leichte Kavallerie: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Welt der Operette page on original 1866 version, accessed 7 June 2010
• MIDI file of Light Cavalry Overture