Fall Leo: Paroli (Komische Oper)

The action of Leo Fall’s Paroli, originally entitled Frau Denise, is set near Paris during the late eighteenth century and varies the Figaro theme of the amorous misadventures of a married nobleman who is duped by his intended victim from the third estate. Fall succeeded in producing a captivating one-act chamber play that was neither an operetta nor an opera – even though it does have its share of reminiscences of fairy-tale operas, stylistic quotations of the rococo, discreet leitmotivic technique, and polished ensemble pieces. Although the work was removed from the theater program after a mere ten days, the music publisher Alexander Jadassohn immediately purchased it for his Harmonie-Verlag. He was the son of the famous Leipzig music professor and Liszt pupil Salomon Jadassohn, who had died only a good half year before. Alexander thereupon found a job for his twenty-two-year-old sister Rahel Raphaéle, known as Bertha, at his publishing house, where she was employed as a secretary and became acquainted with the recently contracted conductor and composer Leo Fall. She married him two years later and counted Frau Denise among her favorite works throughout her life. The piano arrangement, arranged by Siegfried Fall, was published in 1903 with the new title Paroli and classified as a »comic opera,« which does complete justice to the singspiel tone distinguishing the score.