Josef Bayer (1852-1913):
Die Puppenfee Sonne und Erde
Opera house musicians have often found playing for
ballet performances something of a chore. It was
certainly so for Austrian symphonic composer Franz
Schmidt (1874-1939), when in 1896 he became a cellist
with the Vienna Court Opera orchestra. He delighted in
playing in orchestral concerts of the Vienna
Philharmonic, and for operas under such conductors as
Wilhelm Jahn and Hans Richter. He was scathing,
however, about his experience of playing under Court
Ballet Director, Josef Bayer: "I liken him, in order not to
insult this rank, to an Austrian regimental music
sergeant only in so far as he possessed the arrogance and
coarseness of one in richest measure. His ability as
conductor and musician, however, would not have
satisfied the needs of the post of regimental music
sergeant by a long way. He was beneath all criticism and
was further devalued by the pitifulness and vulgarity of
his compositions."
Yet, in his line, Josef Bayer was a master of his craft
and for thirty years was musical head of ballet in
Vienna. Born there on 6th March 1852, he studied at the
Vienna Conservatory under Josef Hellmesberger senior
(1828-93), Anton Bruckner (1824-96) and Otto Dessoff
(1835-92) and was from 1870 until 1898 a violinist in
the Court Opera Orchestra. The peak of his career was
those thirty years in charge of ballet there from 1883
until his death in Vienna on 12th March 1913. During
that time he composed over twenty one-act ballets, many
other dance scenes and divertissements, and numerous
operettas and light music for other venues.
Perhaps by the time Franz Schmidt joined the Court
Opera orchestra, Bayer's inspiration was running a little
dry. Certainly his greatest successes came in earlier
years. The first was in January 1885 with the ballet
Wiener Walzer (Viennese Waltzes), which portrayed the
evolution of the Viennese waltz over the previous
century, with favourite melodies woven into the score.
Its considerable success was overshadowed in 1888,
however, by what was to prove the Vienna Court
Opera's greatest ballet creation ever. Originally entitled
Im Puppenladen (In the Doll Shop), it finally came to be
known as Die Puppenfee (The Fairy Doll) after its
central role. It became the most overwhelmingly
successful ballet of its time in Vienna, and in all was
performed on over a hundred European stages. To this
day it holds a place in the schedules of the Vienna State
Opera (successor of the Court Opera), having been
performed there over eight hundred times in total.
Bayer consolidated his reputation with further ballet
scores without ever quite achieving the same acclaim
again. Still in 1888, Osterreichische Marsche (Austrian
Marches), a ballet after the manner of Wiener Walzer,
was staged in Prague. Then, a year later, the Vienna
Court Opera staged another one-act ballet, Sonne und
Erde (Sun and Earth). Among later ballet scores was
Rund um Wien (Around Vienna), produced at the Court
Opera in October 1894 to celebrate the golden jubilee of
the Waltz King Johann Strauss (1825-99) as conductor
and composer. Bayer also paid further homage to Johann
Strauss later, by arranging for performance the Waltz
King's unfinished ballet score Aschenbrodel
(Cinderella).
First produced on 4th October 1888, Die Puppenfee
was choreographed by the Court Ballet Master, Joseph
Hassreiter (1845-1940), to a scenario by himself and
designer Franz Gaul (1837-1906). Camilla Pagliero
danced the role of the Fairy Doll. Whatever Franz
Schmidt may have said, its music is utterly charming,
full of delightful tunes and fetching orchestral effects.
The scenario obviously owes much to E. T. A.
Hoffmann's 1815 story Der Sandmann (The Sandman),
in which a doll comes to life, and which was used in
Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann. In purely ballet
terms, it owes something to Coppelia and was in turn an
inspiration for La boutique fantasque.
The ballet is preceded by [1] a short prelude,
featuring a toy trumpet and introducing themes to be
heard later in the ballet. [2] The curtain rises on a
toyshop, where the proprietor is working on a doll's
head, while assistants dust the other dolls. They are
interrupted by the arrival of a postman with a package.
[3] Other visitors then follow, including a salesman with
merchandise, and a girl bringing a broken doll for repair.
[4] Then potential customers begin to arrive, headed by a
peasant with his wife and daughter. Clumsily the peasant
disturbs a toy, which falls to the floor. 5 Then comes a
well-to-do English family, anxious to buy a doll.
[6] They are first shown one that fails to work, and they
start to leave, but the proprietor urges them to stay.
[7] He shows them a doll dressed in Upper-Austrian
national costume, which proceeds to dance a Tyrolean
Landler. [8] Then they are shown a baby doll that crawls
around, the music clearly evoking its cries of 'Papa' and
'Mama'. [9] Next the visitors are shown a Chinese doll,
which dances a polka, after which [10] a Spanish doll does
a fiery Spanish dance complete with castanet
accompaniment. [11] Then a Japanese doll dances a slow
mazurka, and [12] a Harlequin performs a rousing
tarantella. Other toys join in as the music rises to a
climax, stirring all the dolls into motion. [13] Then comes
the piece de resistance in a fairy doll, which dances a
graceful waltz. [14] The English family are enraptured.
They give an order to buy her and arrange for her to be
sent to them. Then they and the peasants leave, and the
shop closes for the night. [15] Later, as midnight strikes,
the shop magically comes alive. [16] At the centre of the
activity is the fairy doll. [17] The other dolls join her in a
divertissement, which also features Punchinellos with
tiny cymbals. In turn, all the dolls seen earlier take part
in a grand waltz, laughing and dancing. [18] After a brief
pause, [19] the toys embark on a triumphal march,
followed [20] by a lively galop. [21] Then they all return to
their boxes, gathered around their fairy queen. Disturbed
by the noise, the shopkeeper now rushes in, but finds
everything in order. As he stands puzzled by the
disturbance, the ballet ends with a tableau of dolls
around their fairy queen.
Sonne und Erde, again with a scenario by Hassreiter
and Gaul, was first staged at the Vienna Court Opera on
19th November 1889. Its subject is the seasons and the
elements, and it is divided into a prelude and four
scenes, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. The nature of
the scenario is concisely summarised by quoting the
titles of the dances Bayer later extracted for the
ballroom, Parapluie-Marsch (Umbrella March),
Sonnen-Walzer (Sun Waltz), Bade-Galopp (Bathing
Galop) and Christkindl-Polka (Christ-Child Polka).
In this first ever recording we hear just the prelude and
music from two of the scenes¡XScene I (Spring) and
Scene IV (Winter).
© Andrew Lamb