Baron Trenck

The original German-language work was composed by Felix Albini to a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Robert Bodanzky and premiered at the Stadttheater in Leipzig in 1908.

The English version, adapted by Frederick Franklin Schrader and Henry Blossom, ran for just 43 performances at the Strand Theatre in London in 1911.

The opening night audience were not enthusiastic with some booing during the third act[1][3] at what The Stage called the "weak, heavy and uninteresting" book.

[1] Caroline Hatchard was "a bewitching Countess Lydia, at her wit's end over the constant dallying of her rapscallion lover, Trenck ... she acts interestingly, but her voice, admirably and so easily used by turns for comedy, tenderness and passion, would win its way anywhere.

[2] All later meet at the Empress's chateau, where Lydia, who secretly loves the Baron, is coerced by her Aunt Cornelia into accepting the marriage proposal of the elderly French Ambassador, the Marquis de Bouillaibaise.

Programme from the London production of Baron Trenck (1911)
Perle Barti in Baron Trenck , New York
Vocal score for "In Merry, Merry May!" from Baron Trenck