28^th Festival Season - 2007

Der Vogelhändler

By: Carl Zeller

Premiere: Theater an der Wien, Vienna 10 January 1891

On most people's list of the very greatest Viennese operettas, Der Vogelhändler is the story of a boyish Tyrolean birdseller, Adam, who is anxious to marry Christel, the village postmistress. She goes to the Prince to secure for him the post of Royal Menagerie Keeper, but does not know that His Royal Highness is being impersonated by the swindler and ladies' man, Stanislaus, who has concocted a complex plan to pay off his heavy debt. Adam, unaware of Christel's good intentions, becomes furious when he sees her in the pavilion with the supposed Prince and, even more so, when Christel gives the Prince the bouquet that Adam had just presented to her. The actual Princess, disguised as a peasant girl Marie, offers to Adam her bouquet, which in the Tyrol, he reminds her, means that she has given him her heart as well. After an examination by two eccentric and admittedly unscrupulous professors, Adam is offered the menagerie position. Despite Christel's pleas that she has not been unfaithful, Adam decides that she should marry Stanislaus, an option that she resists. Only after the Princess assures Christel that Marie is no threat to her does the mail girl finally reunite with Adam.

When OLO first presented this show in 1993, the audience response was so great that it was encored the following year. From Christel's entrance number, I am Christel from the post, to the rousing and emotionally moving When you give roses in Tyrol, to the examining professors' I am a rector and the director, Der Vogelhändler is a musical delight from start to finish.

Production Team
Conductor	Nathaniel Motta
Director	Ted Christopher
Choreographer	Carol Hageman
Set Designer	Shelly Barish
Costume Designer	Charlene Gross
Lighting Designer	Dave Stoughton
Assistant Director	Stephen Carr

Cast
The Princess Marie	Julie Wright Suzanne Woods
Countess Adelaide	Sandra Ross
Countess Mimi, a Lady in Waiting	Stina Eberhardt
Christel, the Postmistress	Robin Farnsley Karla Hughes
Adam, the Birdseller	Josh Kohl Peter Foltz
Baron Weps	Paul Hindemith
Count Stanislaus	Jack Beetle Todd Strange
Schneck	Mark Snyder
The Prince Karl Ludwig	Boyd Mackus
Baron Sylvester, his Aide-de-Camp	David Kelleher-Flight
Süffle, Professor of Zoology	Brian Tanner
Würmchen, Professor of Ornithology	Nicholas Hartley
Mother Nebel, Landlady at the Village Inn	Jessie Wright Martin
Heidi, Waitress	Amanda Opuszynski
Emmerenz	Diana Becker
Willing	Michael Denos
Weinleber	Benjamin Robinson
Magerl	Jacob Allen
Gundel, Court Usher	Joey Lenehan
Hofer	Seth Kershisnik