Der Vogelhändler: “Schenkt man sich Rosen in Tirol”

Viennese operetta thrived in its prime - let’s say from the birth of Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus in 1874 until the beginning of the First World War - on an insatiable demand for waltz songs set in romantic or erotic situations. Indeed, as Franz Lehár’s long waltz-time career clearly demonstrates, it sustained Viennese musical theatre for decades after that. In the years round the turn of the nineteenth century the popular demand for operetta with good tunes was such that anyone who could write a passable waltz had a chance of acquiring at least a little fame and fortune.

Carl Zeller’s day job was in the higher ranks of the civil service but he also found time to write seven operettas, the two most successful of which were Der Vogelhändler and Der Obersteiger. First performed in Vienna in 1891, Der Vogelhändler (The Bird Seller) is set in the Rhineland and concerns the love affair of Christel, the local postmistress, and Adam, a bird seller from the Tyrol. Adam’s most popular number, a slow waltz song, expresses his wonder at being given a bouquet by a girl he doesn’t know: after all, when you give flowers in the Tyrol you give your heart as well.