Here's what I would call...an interesting one. I didn't know anything about it before watching, but you have certain expectations of what you'll find in a Lehár operetta, and this defied those for me.
Right, so there's a woman, Zorika, who's engaged to a rich dude, Jonel, but then she meets this gypsy violinist, Józsi, and feels uncertain about her future and what she really wants. There's this idea that you can see the future by taking a drink of water from the local river, so she does this, and it makes her decide to go off with Józsi. But things are not as one might hope: Józsi isn't as charming as he initially seemed, and all the gypsies just seem greedy and cruel, and she's forced to degrade herself by begging for money and to tell people's fortunes. Back home, her dad doesn't even recognize her, and refuses to be the father of a gypsy woman. Józsi sings about how gypsies are never faithful, so she can't expect anything in that regard, and...does this seem like an operetta plot? I feel like it doesn't. How is this going to end happily or at least not horrendously tragically? Well...then she wakes up. Turns out she dreamed up the whole thing after drinking the river water. It's the Super Mario Bros. 2 of operettas! And how she's totes keen on marrying Jonel, so that's all right then!
It's an odd thing; it really is. There's almost no humor here, or romance. German operetta (and Léhar in particular) seem much more invested in having their operettas be romantic than the English or French are. Well...I may be generalizing about those last two from too small a sample size, but regardless, it's notable. There IS a secondary couple here that has such a tiny role it's easy to just forget about them; I suspect they might have a larger role in the original that was cut down for this film version. Here, all we have is Zorika and Jonel, which is almost nothing; after she wakes up and he appears, Léhar certainly tries to play the ending as romantic, but it's hard not to feel that it's mostly just Zorika feeling relieved: phew, that scenario my subconscious cooked up never happened; compared to that, this dude seems pretty okay! It's weird, for sure.
But the elephant in the room: racism. Obviously. Is this operetta racist against gypsies? Well...yes. But also, it's complicated. A bit. Maybe. On the one hand, it fully buys into stereotypes, that's for sure, although on the other hand, one does have to admit at least a little nuance: Zorika's father is himself portrayed as pretty racist "gypsies need to be hit," he says repeatedly, and it's hard to see any situation where that would be seen as a positive. And yet, on the third hand, their portrayal is what it is. Still, on the fourth hand, it's worth noting that all of the negative stereotypes occur during Zorika's dream, which seems like it ought to mean something. Unless, on the fifth hand, we're meant to assume that it's an actual magic vision, and not something that she just dreamed up. We tend to assume the former, but does that accord with authorial intent? I'm not sure. But, on the sixth hand, even in that case, the fact remains, there's none of the bad stuff outside the vision (is the river meant to be racist?). Then again, on the seventh hand, the piece is entitled "gypsy love," which would seem to be a strong indication that the message is meant to be "this is just what happens if you get involved with Those People." It is murky and unclear and makes for somewhat uncomfortable viewing. Also, I'm running out of hands.
Still, I'll tell you one thing: whatever Léhar thought of Romani culture, he was totally grooving on their music. This brings in the gypsy folk in a big way, and it pretty much rocks. There will be absolutely no complaining allowed on that score. Also, as Józsi (a weird character--first seems to be the romantic hero, and he's definitely the largest male role, but then he's actually the villain...or is he?), Ion Buzea (or possible "Jon," but his website says "Ion") is very memorable--a big heldentenor voice that definitely makes you stand up and take notice. He's had a huge and varied international career, so why hadn't I heard of him? Well, there are lots of great singers I've never heard of. The world, by some standards, is large.
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