Here's another one from M T. Flotow was a prolific composer, but for whatever reason--who can fathom these twists of fate?--this is his only enduring work, and not even all that enduring these days. But guess what? I saw it anyway, through this German TV version from 1978! I'm a madman!
So there's Harriet, a lady-in-waiting to the queen, who's sick of court life. So she goes out to visit a local fair along with her attendant, Nancy. At this fair, various women are auctioning off their services as servants, so for a lark, the two of them allow themselves to be hired by a coupla farmers, Plunkett and his foster brother Lyonel (using the fake names Martha and Julia). But now they're sort of stuck, because the law sez that when you hire yourself out, it has to be for a full year, even though they turn out to be bad at the stuff they've nominally been hired for. Nonetheless, the farmers fall for the girls, and they're sad when they sneak back off to the castle. Later, Lyonel stumbles upon Harriet again, and tries to enforce his contract, but everyone decides he's crazy and that he should be locked up. But! He has a special ring given to him by his father that he's supposed to show the queen if he's in trouble. So he does this, and it turns out he's the son of an unjustly banished nobleman, and really, if you have any experience with this stuff, you would've guessed this plot twist or something like it as soon as I wrote "foster-brother." Anyway, both couples get together, hurrah!
If you search for "flotow martha" on amazon, you will receive the suggestion to look for "flotow martha dvd." But alas, your hopes will be dashed if you do this, as there is no such beast. But there should be! Because this is huge fun: very spritely, Donizetti-esque comic music. I can't imagine you wouldn't like it. The quality here is not the greatest, but better than The Snow Maiden. This is a side of nineteenth-century German opera I'd never seen before. Check it out.
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