Zigeunerbaron – So elend

Johann Strauss II

Der Zigeunerbaron: “So elend und so treu… O habet Acht”

The next most successful of Johann II’s operettas after Die Fledermaus is Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron), which was first performed at the Theater an der Wien in 1885. It owes its popularity to its waltz numbers, of course, but also to the composer’s delight in the Hungarian gypsy idiom and the Viennese taste for anything flavoured with paprika. The aria “So elend und so treu… O habet Acht,” a Hungarian rhapsody in miniature, is a particularly good example, even though Saffi, who sings it towards the end of Act I, is not really a gypsy. Having been brought up as a gypsy, however, she proudly believes she is one. Certainly her expression of gypsy defiance is so authentic in its csárdás style that the Gypsy Baron of the title, who is neither a gypsy nor a baron, falls in love with her. In the end she turns out to be the daughter of the last Pasha of Hungary and he, having distinguished himself as a war hero in the meantime, becomes a real baron. They live happily ever after.