Thomas Asanger

Der Göttergatte

Der Göttergatte is an operetta by Franz Lahár, based on Greek mythology, first performed in 1904 at the Carltheater in Vienna. Victor Leon and Leo Stein wrote the libretto, but unfortunately the work was not successful. Convinced of the quality of the music, Lahár revised his operetta twice. The librettists Julius Bammer and Alfred Grünwald said goodbye to Greek antiquity as a theme, hoping to breathe new life into the work, but this did not lead to success either. Even under the titles "Die ideale Gattin" (1913) and "Die Tangokönigin" (1921) the operetta was not appreciated by the public and the critics and eventually disappeared from the repertoire.Fritz Neuböck took up this cheerful music and arranged the overture for band. In this version the overture ends, after the cadenza in the clarinet, not with a slow waltz, but with a reprise of the lively march motif.