The White Horse Inn

For other uses, seeThe White Horse Inn (disambiguation).

The White Horse Inn(orWhite Horse Inn) (German title:Im weißen Rößl) is anoperettaormusical comedybyRalph BenatzkyandRobert Stolzin collaboration with a number of other composers and writers, set in the picturesqueSalzkammergutregion ofUpper Austria.It is about the head waiter of the White Horse Inn inSt. Wolfgangwho is desperately in love with the owner of theinn,a resolute young woman who at first only has eyes for one of her regular guests. Sometimes classified as anoperetta,the show enjoyed huge successes in theWest End(651 performances at theColiseumstarting 8 April 1931), asa Broadway version,and was filmed several times. In a way similar toThe Sound of Musicand the threeSissimovies, the play and its film versions have contributed to the popular image ofAustriaas analpineidyll—the kind of idylltouristshave been seeking for almost a century now. Today,Im weißen Rößlis mainly remembered for its songs, many of which have become popular classics.

The White Horse Inn
Operetta or musical comedy byRalph Benatzky,Robert Stolz
Librettist	Ralph Benatzky,Hans Müller-Einigen,Erik Charell,Robert Gilbert
Language	German
Based on	Comedy of the same name byOscar Blumenthal,Gustav Kadelburg
Premiere	8 November 1930 Großes Schauspielhaus,Berlin

The original play

In the last decade of the 19th century,Oscar Blumenthal,a theatre director from Berlin, Germany, was on holiday in Lauffen (now part ofBad Ischl), a small town in the vicinity of St. Wolfgang. There, at the inn where he was staying, Blumenthal happened to witness the head waiter's painful wooing of his boss, a widow. Amused, Blumenthal used the story as the basis of acomedy—without music—which he co-authored with actorGustav Kadelburg.However, Blumenthal and Kadelburg relocated the action from Lauffen to the much more prominent St. Wolfgang, where the Gasthof Weißes Rößl had actually existed since 1878. Having thus chanced upon a suitable title, the authors went to work, andIm weißen Rößleventually premiered in Berlin in 1897.

The play was an immediate success. The Berlin audience would laugh at the comic portrayal of well-to-do city dwellers such as Wilhelm Giesecke, a manufacturer ofunderwear,and his daughter Ottilie, who have travelled all the way from Berlin to St. Wolfgang and now, on holiday, cannot help displaying many of the characteristics of thenouveaux-riches."Wär' ick bloß nachAhlbeckjefahren "—" If only I had gone to Ahlbeck ", Giesecke sighs as he considers his unfamiliar surroundings and the strangedialectspoken by the wildmountain peoplethat inhabit the Salzkammergut. At the same time the play promotedtourism in Austria,especially in and around St. Wolfgang, with a contemporary edition of theBaedekerpraising the natural beauty of the region and describing the White Horse Inn as nicely situated at the lakefront next to where thesteamboatcan be taken for a romantic trip across theWolfgangsee.The White Horse Inn was even awarded aBaedeker star.

Sydney Rosenfeld,a prolific American adapter of foreign plays, premièred an English version of the play titledAt the White Horse TavernatWallack's Theatrein 1899, with a cast includingAmelia BinghamandLeo Ditrichstein.

The musical comedy

The White Horse Inn in 2004

Just as the play was about to be forgotten—asilent filmThe White Horse Inndirected byRichard Oswaldand starringLiane Haidhad been made in Germany in1926—it was revived, again in Berlin, and this time as a musical comedy. During a visit to the Salzkammergut, the actorEmil Janningstold Berlin theatre managerErik Charellabout the comedy. Charell was interested and commissioned a group of prominent authors and composers to come up with a musical show based on Blumenthal and Kadelburg's play. They wereRalph Benatzky,Robert StolzandBruno Granichstaedten(music),Robert Gilbert(lyrics),Hans Müller-Einigenand Charell himself.

The show premiered in Berlin on 8 November 1930. Immediately afterwards it became a success around the world, with long runs in cities like London, Paris, Vienna, Munich and New York. During theThird Reichthe comedy was marginalized and not performed (Goebbelscalled it "eine Revue, die uns heute zum Hals heraushängt" — "the kind of entertainment we find boring and superfluous today" ), whereas people in the 1950s, keen on harmony and shallow pleasures,eagerly greeted revivals of the show. German-language films based on the musical comedy were made in1935,1952and1960.

Roles

Roles, voice types, premiere cast

Role	Voice type	Premiere cast, 8 November 1930
Dr. Otto Siedler, lawyer	tenor	Otto Wallburg
Josepha Vogelhuber, landlady	soprano	Camilla Spira
Franz Joseph,emperor of Austria-Hungary	baritone	Paul Hörbiger
Wilhelm Giesecke, Berlin factory owner	spoken	Walter Jankuhn
Ottilie Giesecke, his daughter	soprano	Trude Lieske
Sigismund Sülzheimer, son of Giesecke's competitor	bass	Siegfried Arno
Professor Dr. Hinzelmann, tourist	baritone
Klärchen Hinzelmann, his daughter	soprano
Leopold Brandmeyer, waiter	tenor	Max Hansen
Piccolo, apprentice waiter		Manasse Herbst
		Laura Desni
		Marianne Winkelstern
		Willi Schaeffers

Synopsis

It is summertime at the Wolfgangsee. Josepha Vogelhuber, the young, attractive but resolute owner of the White Horse Inn, has beencourtedfor some time by her head waiter, Leopold Brandmeyer. While appreciating his aptness for the job, she mistrusts all men as potential gold-diggers, rejects Leopold's advances and longingly waits for the arrival of Dr Siedler, a lawyer who has been one of her regular guests for many years. This year, Josepha hopes, Siedler might eventually propose to her.

When Siedler arrives, he finds himself in the very same place as Wilhelm Giesecke, his client Sülzheimer's business rival, and immediately falls in love with Giesecke's beautiful daughter Ottilie. As it happens, Sülzheimer's son Sigismund, a would-be beau, also arrives at the White Horse Inn. Angry at first about Siedler's presence at the same inn, Giesecke soon has the idea of marrying off his daughter to Sigismund Sülzheimer, thus turning a pendinglawsuitinto an advantageous businessmerger.However, Siedler's love is reciprocated by Ottilie, who adamantly refuses to marry Sigismund, while Sigismund himself has fallen for Klärchen Hinzelmann, a naive beauty who accompanies her professorial father on a tour through the Salzkammergut.

Seeing all this, Leopold Brandmeyer decides that he has had enough and quits his job. Josepha has also done a lot of thinking in the meantime, reconsiders her head waiter's proposal of marriage, and can persuade him to stay—not just as an employee but also as proprietor. Love gets its way with the other two couples as well, and the play ends with the prospect of a triple marriage.

Musical numbers

• "Im weißen Rössl am Wolfgangsee" (Music: Ralph Benatzky)
• "Was kann der Sigismund dafür, dass er so schön ist" (Robert Gilbert)
• "Im Salzkammergut, da kann man gut lustig sein" (Ralph Benatzky)
• "Es muss was Wunderbares sein" (Ralph Benatzky)
• "Mein Liebeslied muss ein Walzer sein" (Robert Stolz)
• "Zuschaun kann i net" (Bruno Granichstaedten)
• "Die ganze Welt ist himmelblau" (Robert Stolz)

Film adaptations

	Germany 1926(silent film based on the 1898 play)	Austria 1935	West Germany 1952	West Germany / Austria 1960	Denmark / Austria 1964	Germany 1994 (live performance at Berlin's "Bar jeder Vernunft" )	Germany/Austria 2013 (Im weißen Rössl – Wehe Du singst! (In the White Horse Inn – Don't you dare sing!))
directed by	Richard Oswald	Carl Lamac	Willi Forst	Werner Jacobs	Erik Balling	Ursli Pfister	Christian Theede
Josepha Vogelhuber	Liane Haid	Christl Mardayn	Johanna Matz	Waltraut Haas	Susse Wold	Fräulein Schneider	Edita Malovcic
Leopold Brandmeyer, head waiter	Max Hansen	Hermann Thimig	Walter Müller	Peter Alexander	Dirch Passer	Toni Pfister	Fritz Karl
Wilhelm Giesecke, industrialist from Berlin	Henry Bender	Willi Schaeffers	Paul Westermeier	Erik Jelde	Karl Stegger (namedJulius Müller)	Gerd Wameling	Armin Rohde
Ottilie Giesecke, his daughter	Maly Delschaft	Annie Markart	Marianne Wischmann	Karin Dor(playing "Brigitte Giesecke" )	N/A (This role has been combined with the characterKlärchen)	Lilo Pfister	Diana Amft
Dr Siedler, lawyer	Livio Pavanelli	Fritz Odemar	Johannes Heesters	Adrian Hoven	N/A (This role has been combined with the characterSigismund)	Max Raabe	Tobias Licht
Professor Hinzelmann	Hermann Picha	Theo Lingen(playing "Kommerzienrat Fürst" )	Sepp Nigg	Werner Finck	Paul Hagen (This role has been reduced to a supporting actor – a photographer)	Otto Sander	—
Klärchen Hinzelmann, his daughter	-?-	Marianne Stanior	Ingrid Pan	Estella Blain	Lone Hertz (namedKlärchen Müller,daughter toJulius Müller,and combined with the characterOttilie)	Meret Becker	Julia Cencig
Sigismund Sülzheimer	-?-	-?-	Ulrich Beiger	Gunther Philipp	Ove Sprogøe (This role has been combined with the characterDr Siedler)	Ursli Pfister	Gregor Bloéb
Emperor Francis Joseph	-?-	— (action updated to the present)	Rudolf Forster	— (action updated to the present)	Peter Malberg	Walter Schmidinger	— (action updated to present)

A post-war Argentinian movie in Spanish,La Hostería del caballito blanco,was directed byBenito Perojoand released in1948.A Danish film of1964byErik Balling,Sommer i Tyrol(althoughTyrolisnotthe original setting), starredDirch PasserandSusse Wold.

In addition, the musical triggered a number ofspin-offssuch as the1961Austrian comedy filmIm schwarzen Rößl(The Black Horse Inn), directed byFranz Antel,about a young woman (surprisingly, it wasKarin Doragain, who had just played Giesecke's daughter in the1960version) who inherits a dilapidatedhotelon the shores of the Wolfgangsee. As a matter of fact, a number of hotels in St. Wolfgang do use similar names (Black Horse, White Stag, etc.).

Most recently, a new musical film adaptation of "Im Weissen Rössl" came out in November 2013 with the German titleIm weißen Rössl – Wehe Du singst!from directorChristian Theede.Unlike its predecessors, however, the movie was not filmed on location at the Hotel Im Weissen Rössl in St. Wolfgang, Austria.

References

• Casaglia, Gherardo (2005)."Details of the premiere".L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia(in Italian).

External links

• History of The White Horse Inn in St. Wolfgang