Offenbach, Jacques

the full score for three solo voices and orchestra, notated in brown ink, on up to 24 staves per page, with German words throughout, comprising seven numbers with cues for spoken dialogue, without an ouverture, fully composed, but with some passages represented schematically or with cues,

93 pages, oblong folio (c.26.3 x 35cm), 24-stave paper, written on bifolios stitched sequentially, each number with a title-wrapper, with many integral blanks, a few leaves annotated in pencil and titled in another hand on versos, the German words frequently revised in another hand, some staining and creasing to corners, together with a contemporary manuscript full score, in German, by a presumably Austrian hand, which includes the overture and a few textual differences from the composer's autograph

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This is an Offenbach discovery: the complete working full score of an opera-comique, composed by him in German, hitherto supposed to be an adaptation of an old work in French.  The arrangement of the bifolios indicates that this is Offenbach's first continuous draft of his opera, and thus his composing manuscript .  Fleurette has only ever been published as a vocal score: never the present orchestral version.  The manuscript lacks an overture, which may have been added by someone other than Offenbach, and the spoken dialogue.  

Offenbach evidently composed this music for Vienna; it was given at the Karltheater on 8 March 1872.  Although Alexander Faris and Andrew Lamb indicate that Offenbach originally wrote Fleurette in about 1863, to French words by de Forges and Laurencin, there does not appear to be any existing autograph of that version.  Moreover, this appears to be the composing manuscript, showing that Offenbach wrote this music to German words; there is no sign that he merely added a German translation to old music (or even to an old manuscript).  The manuscript contains some original sketches and many signs of revision and alteration.  It is plain that the composer has entered the vocal line first and added the orchestration, in line with his normal practice in working  out a score.  Offenbach was originally German-Jewish, born in Cologne in 1819, and he went to France only at the age of fourteen.  He has entered the words in German, but frequently these have been revised in another hand.

The German words used here generally follow those (by Hopp and Zell) found in the contemporary vocal score by C.A. Spina of Vienna (1872, as Fleurette oder Näherin und Trompeter); it was later published in French (1891), but never the full score.  There are three roles: Fleurette ("Näherin"), which was sung by Mila Roeder, and two parts for tenors: Jolicoeur (the "Trompeter"), and Nicodème (the majordomo),  

The numbers in this German operetta, are:

1) Nicodeme, "Nicht nur die goldene Jugend kennet den Liebesschmerz", in F major, 5 pages, 2 bifolios

2) Fleurette, "Wie bewegt vom Zephirwinden pocht der Herz mir in der Brust", in A-flat major, 8 pages

3) Fleurette; "Aber was soll das Träumen ich darf mit Arbeit nicht säumen", in E major, leading to the aria in G major "Was ist das/ Ach was hör' ich?", 16 pages in all, 5 bifolios, 

4) Duo Fleurette and Jolicoeur, "Mir ist zu Muth gar jämmerlich", in E-flat major, 28 pages, 7 bifolios, containing a central section in A major

5) [Couplets] Jolicoeur, Nicodeme, "Ich bin die kleiner Näherin", in G major, 4 pages

6) [Trio] Fleurette, Nicodeme and Jolicoeur, "Halt nicht von der Stelle/ Himmel Ha", in A-flat major, and G major, including the aria "Ein Mädchen", 25 pages, 6 bifolios, with a continuation on a seventh bifolio

7) "Nro 7 Schluss", Fleurette, Nicodeme and Jolicoeur, "In unser Hochzeit schon feirrnarà [sic, corrected in another hand in pencil: "feiern"] morgen"