70 YEARS AFTER THE END OF THE NAZI DICTATORSHIP AND THE HOLOCAUST, THE JOHANN STRAUSS SOCIETY OF VIENNA PAID TRIBUTE TO A MASTER OF THE LATE SILVER ERA OF VIENNESE OPERETTA
Acclaimed revival of the operetta „ Polish Wedding“
by Josef Beer
The National Socialists‘ rise to power in Germany in 1933, followed by the expansion of their brutal dictatorship across much of Europe, not only cost millions of lives through war and systematic extermination, but also deprived millions more of their means of existence as they were forced to flee or were driven into exile. Consequently, our country lost great intellectual and artistic potential both for the generation of that time and also for future generations. The latter applies in a special way to the old-Austrian composer Josef Beer (1908 – 1987). His composition teacher at the Vienna Academy of Music, the eminent late-Romantic composer Joseph Marx, attested to his talent after the successful premiere of his first operetta The Prince of Shiraz (1933), saying that it was „a skill that only few highly established operetta composers can claim as their own“.
The sensational success of Beer’s second operetta, Polish Wedding , which had its world premiere at the Zurich Opera on 3rd April 1937, confirmed the correctness of this assessment. In 1938, the work was scheduled to have its Austrian premiere at the Theater an der Wien, with Richard Tauber in the male lead. However, the invasion of the Hitler troops on 12th March prevented the performance, as Beer was of Jewish descent. Although the composer managed to escape the Holocaust, the murder of his parents and sister in the Auschwitz extermination camp in 1943 left him psychologically shattered for the rest of his life. Consequently, from 1945 onward, he refused to allow any performances of his works.
After Josef Beer’s death in 1987, his widow and two daughters began working to bring his musical legacy back into public awareness. This effort culminated in the Austrian premiere of Polnische Hochzeit in Vienna in 2012. In 2015, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the fall of the Nazi regime, the Holocaust, and the re-establishment of Austria with the founding of the Second Republic, the Johann Strauss Society of Vienna took the opportunity to honour Josef Beer and his once-popular operetta. On 9th November 2015, the Society successfully premiered Polnische Hochzeit with the Classical Operetta Ensemle ( see cover photo ). Just a few days later, on 20th November 2015, the work was presented again as part of a guest performance at the Stadttheater Wiener Neustadt.
The composer’s daughter, Suzanne Beer, had travelled all the way from her home in France to Austria for this performance. Although she was known for her reserved nature, after the performance she sought out Peter Widholz, who had been responsible for the entire production and had sung the male lead role, in his dressing room. Overwhelmed with gratitude and enthusiasm for the quality of the performance, she threw her arms around him.
