Die Rose von Stambul (The Rose of Istanbul): “Ihr stillen süssen Frau’n”

While Lehár seemed to have lost his popular touch during the First World War, his ex-military-bandsman colleague Leo Fall recovered his – not least in Die Rose von Stambul, which was first performed at the Theater an der Wien in 1916. Based on a story with interestingly modern reverberations, Die Rose von Stambul is about the clash of traditional and West-European cultures in what was then the capital of Turkey. Kondja Gül, the Pasha’s daughter known as “the rose of Stamboul,” is thoroughly westernised. She is fond of music by Wagner, Strauss and Lehár and is also a passionate admirer of a poet she has never met called André Lery. The problem is that her father has promised her to Achmed Bey, the son of his Prime Minister, when she realy fancies André Lery. Three acts later she is delighted to find out that, unlikely though it might seem, Achmed Bey and André Lery are one and the same person.

Tonight’s excerpt comes from much earlier in the story when Achmed meets the ladies-in-waiting of his promised bride and, suggesting he should see their faces, asks them to remove their veils. His debonair and appropriately, if minimally, exotic “Ihr stillen süssen Frau’n” (You sweet, silent ladies) registers his delight when they comply.