The Bird Seller Tickets

Estonian National Opera, Tallinn, Estonia

Scene 9 from the operetta "The Bird Seller"

Scene 1 from the operetta "The Bird Seller"

Scene 2 from the operetta "The Bird Seller"

Scene 3 from the operetta "The Bird Seller"

Scene 4 from the operetta "The Bird Seller"

Scene 5 from the operetta "The Bird Seller"

Scene 6 from the operetta "The Bird Seller"

Scene 7 from the operetta "The Bird Seller"

Scene 8 from the operetta "The Bird Seller"

Scene 10 from the operetta "The Bird Seller"

All photos (10)

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Important Info

Type: Operetta

City: Tallinn, Estonia

Duration: 3h 15min with 1 interval

Intervals: 1

Sung in: Estonian

Titles in: Estonian,English

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Cast

Performers

Choose the date to see the peformers

Overview

Carl Zeller’s most popular operetta, “The Bird Seller” (Der Vogelhändler) is a bucolic comedy set in the 18th-century Bavaria. It humorously mocks the time’s court, its petty intrigues and village romance.

A handsome bird seller Adam from Tyrol is in love with the village postmistress Christel. For cross-purposes they get involved in romantic complications at the Court of the reigning Prince. The intrigues are spiced up by a young and beautiful Countess, who dressed up as a village girl and follows the Count on his hunting trip; an elderly lady in waiting Adelaide, looking for romance; the master of the hunt and a crafty collector of bribes, Weps; as well as his nephew, Count Stanislaus who is always in debt.

Carl Zeller, the author of “The Bird Seller”, written in the end of the Golden Age of Viennese operetta, was a solicitor by profession. His legacy as a composer includes a number of operettas and an opera, none of which repeated the success of “The Bird Seller” or “The Mine Foreman” (1894, Der Obersteiger). Zeller’s music is tuneful, liltingly-operatic and easy. “The Bird Seller” was first performed at the Estonian National Opera in 1911 and the last time during the season 1955/56.

History

Premiere of this production: 10 January 1891, Theater an der Wien, Vienna

Der Vogelhändler (The Bird Seller) is an operetta in three acts by Carl Zeller with a libretto by Moritz West and Ludwig Held based on Victor Varin's and de Biéville's Ce que deviennent les roses (1857).

Synopsis

Act 1
The mayor is at his wit's end because he cannot supply the Elector with the wild boar and the ceremonial maiden required to perform during an upcoming festival. A waitress suggests that Christel, the postal clerk, might be willing to volunteer to be the ceremonial maiden because she is promised to Adam, a bird-seller from the Tyrol, who cannot afford to move into her community to forward their engagement. Wishing to please Christel, Adam offers Weps a yellow adult bird from the Tyrol as a bribe toward being considered for an in-town work assignment. Meanwhile, Stanislaus, a guards officer, is attempting to get out of debt. When the master of the hunt finds out that the Elector will not be coming to the festival, he is greedy for the purse which the Elector has sent to use as an honorarium to pay the ceremonial maiden. Stanislaus suggests that he impersonate the Elector.

Electress-Princess Marie arrives in disguise with Adelaide because she believes that the Elector is coming to the festival for no other reason than to be alone with the ceremonial maiden. Christel tells Adam that she plans to petition the Court to find him employment so that he can move here to forward their engagement. Adam, believing that a Tyrolean man bears the sole responsibility to fight his own fight to be able to support the wife he has chosen, asks her not to do this. Christel ends up in the pavilion with Stanislaus, believing him to be the Elector. Adam arrives at the festival to find the master of the hunt and the mayor informing him that Christel is the ceremonial maiden and is therefore not in the crowd. Marie, hoping to save Adam from embarrassment, offers him the bouquet of roses which she has brought in case her plan to become the ceremonial maiden, thus catching her husband, inflagrante, works out. Adam, thinking of his own Tyrolen behavior code, somehow believes himself to have been promised to Marie and Christel to have been promised to the Elector. He publicly breaks off his engagement to Christel.

Act 2
The master of the hunt, who is Stanislaus' uncle, wonders about a scandal about to break because Adam and Christel have arrived at the Palace at cross-purposes, while Stanislaus may still be impersonating the Elector. Christel manages to get permission from Marie to find Adam a job at Court. An examination is arranged for Adam's job interview, conducted by two comical professors. Adelaide asks the master of the hunt to arrange a marriage between herself and Stanislaus, whom she adores, Stanislaus, still pretending to be the Elector, continues to pursue Christel, who complains to Marie. Marie works out a scheme with Adam and Christel to identify the unknown individual who is still impersonating the Elector. She invites Adam to bring his Tyrolean friends to entertain at Court. Under the guise of proposing a toast, Adam manages to get around to all concerned to inform them that Christel will ring a small bell when she identifies the unknown individual who may still be impersonating the Elector.

When the master of the hunt announces the wedding of Adelaide and Stanislaus, Christel identifies Stanislaus as the impostor. When Marie chides Stanisslaus for behavior unbecoming an officer and chooses Adam as the person to pass judgement because Adam was the one who suffered most because of his prank, Adam announces to the Court that he believes Stanislaus to have already made a legitimate offer of marriage to Christel. Stanislaus answers him in gentlemanly fashion by formally proposing to Christel. When Christel tells Adam that she is still promised only to him, Adam again formally rejects her, so Christel decides to accept Stanislaus' proposal. Adelaide, still unsure why there was an objection to her marriage because her groom had already promised himself to another, collapses.

Act 3
The master of the hunt, who has always adored Adelaide, sets things right by proposing to her and encouraging her to accept. Christel confronts Stanislaus and convinces both Adam and Stanislaus that women always have the upper hand in matters of love. Marie wonders why those below her in rank are finding true happiness while she can only fantasize about her own happiness.

In a warmth of cross-cultural friendship and understanding, the Tyroleans encourage the aristocrats of the Court to dance with them at the union of Adam and Christel while Adam extends to his new neighbors a warm greeting in his own Tyrolean dialect.

Venue Info

Estonian National Opera - Tallinn
Estonia Avenue 4

In 1865, the song and drama society “Estonia”was founded in Tallinn. In 1906, the society became the basis for the professional theatre founded by the directors and actors Paul Pinna and Theodor Altermann called “Estonia”.

The song and drama society "Estonia" was founded in 1870. This was the beginning of what has become the current-day Estonian National Opera.

Play-acting was taken up in 1871, although theatre as a tradition did not really come into being until 1895, when the society began to direct song plays, folk plays and comedies, usually with singing and dancing. By the start of the 20th century more serious drama was being staged.

In 1906, the society became the basis for the professional theatre called "Estonia" founded by the directors and actors Paul Pinna and Theodor Altermann. This remained tied to the "Estonia" society and the Estonian Theatre "Estonia" Limited Liability Company, founded in 1908, until 1940, at which time they were disbanded under the Soviet rule in Estonia as part of "the bourgeois remnant" and the theatre was nationalized.

In 2003 a new multipurpose chamber hall was completed in the opera house, in the autumn of 2004 the theatre hall got a new and modern stage, in 2005 the theatre hall and the rooms for the audience were renovated before the celebrations of a centenary of the professional “Estonia” theatre.

On 6 September 2013 the opera house celebrated its centenary.