Nádors Erzählungen oder das Budapester Dreimäderlhaus. Ein Beitrag zur Budapester Offenbach-Rezeption

Mihály Nádorʼs and Jenő Faragóʼs three-act operetta entitled Offenbach was one of the biggest theater successes in Budapest in the period following World War I. The piece, whose first performance took place at the Király Theater in 1920, was also premiered in Vienna, Prague, Munich and in different adaptations in Berlin and New York. It represents a popular type of operetta of the era, whose main protagonists are nineteenth-century composers, and whose music was partly or entirely compiled of melodies taken from the musicians in question. In my study, I examine the extant musical and textual sources of the piece partly belonging to the composerʼs estate preserved at the Music Department of the Széchényi National Library. I interpret Nádorʼs work as a document of the Budapest Offenbach reception, and I reveal some intriguing differences between the Budapest and Vienna versions of the piece. I also demonstrate that the operetta was in all likelihood an imitation of Henrich Bertéʼs similar piece, Das Dreimäderlhaus, which was performed in every Budapest operetta theater between 1916 and 1924. At the same time, however, a successful new production of Offenbach's La Belle Hélène was likewise an important antecedent for Nádorʼs operetta.