At the beginning of the 20th century, Europe is living in peace and prosperity. The “Belle Époque” is an outgrowth of previous important historical events and developments. The networks that are created and which evolve funnel both people and their products, tangible and intangible. It is within this multi-layered world that sound recording and sound reproduction is invented. Early record labels send mobile crews literally all over the world to record local musicians. The range of the repertoire is endless. Cosmopolitanism in large urban centers favors polystylisms and polymorphisms. Colonialism, revolutions, conflicts, refugee flows; the theater, cinema, radio, photography, orchestras’ tours, but also circulations in all kinds of commercial channels in a world that evolves dynamically and anisotropically, form a complex network of “centers” and “peripheries” in alternating roles setting musical idioms in motion, both literally and figuratively. The networks in which the Greek-speaking musics participate, constantly conversing with their co-tenants, are magnificent. Discography has already provided important tools in understanding the relationships that developed between “national” repertoires. The result of this ongoing research is “Cosmopolitanism in Greek Historical Discography”.

Austria’s geographical position naturally renders the country the center of European developments, but also an important sort of conduit for the diffusion of tangible and intangible products from all and towards all directions. However, it is not a popular part of the relevant historiographical research as far as the relations between the Greek-speaking and the rest of the world. Not to mention that that within the musicological field, research is almost completely absent. However, geography often speaks for itself: The Habsburg Empire (Austro-Hungarian Empire after the Compromise of 1867) bordered the Ottoman Empire to the south. Both claimed territories of the later Yugoslavia, and especially those of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, on the one hand, accommodated a notable Muslim population, and, on the other hand, communicated directly with the historical region of Macedonia and the Greek-speaking population that lived there. Vienna was a unique melting pot of cultures; the arts, dominated by music, were experiencing an unprecedented boom. A particular theatrical genre, which developed in various forms throughout Europe, was at the heart of Viennese creation: it was the Volkstheater (the folk theater), which was part of a long tradition of comical performing arts, with music playing a dominant role. According to the relevant discourse, after 1850 this style is transformed in the Viennese operetta, which had an unprecedented dynamic in terms of production of new works. Soon, discography would enter this network, and together with the already vibrant reality of the music publishing houses, would contribute to the mass diffusion of the Viennese operetta both in Europe and America. The leading element of these works was, among other things, the waltz, a trademark of the Austrian capital, as well as its main exported cultural product all over the world. The role played by the Strauss family was a catalyst in this development. These trends reached and were adopted and adapted by the Greek-speaking world, which incorporated them into its own conditions. In any case, the circulation of musics is already a reality before the 20th century with theatrical and musical performances tours , but also with the networks of music publishing houses. Discography is not only embedded in this context, but also plays a key role in its transformation. It should also be noted that, in various cases, often due to the great international success of the songs, the resulting network is extremely complex and does not only concern Greek-Austrian relations.

Within these networks, already existing tendencies and aesthetic currents are often created or integrated, especially during the period when the phenomenon of sound recording and reproduction takes on commercial, mass and universal dimensions. A typical example is exoticism, as manifested in its various representations. This recording aptly outlines this dialectical, multi-layered relationship between the various repertoires and aesthetic trends and currents.

The song "Me chares kai me tragoudia" (With joys and with songs) comes from the second act (eighteenth scene) of the three-act operetta "Die Csárdásfürstin" (The Csárdás Princess), set to music by Emmerich Kálmán and libretto by Leo Stein and Bela Jenbach. It is the duet "Tanzen möcht ich - Tausend kleine Engel" (Nr. 12 Duett), arranged with Greek lyrics, performed by the young prince Edwin Ronald and the singer Sylva Varescu (see the plot here and the libretto here).

The operetta falls within the scope of exoticism, under the ethnocentric lens of which the Western world came into contact, among others, with the close othernesses such as the peoples of Eastern Europe. More specifically, this otherness is embodied by the heroine Sylva Varescu, a popular singer and dancer from Budapest, who, despite her efforts to rise in the social hierarchy, would be reduced to the role of "The Csárdás Princess" or, according to other versions of the play, to that of the "Gypsy princess". It is worth noting that Csárdás (or Czárdás) is a type of popular dance from Hungary and the surrounding areas, and is one of the most recognizable elements of the so-called “style hongrois”.

The folk-popular musical idioms of Eastern Europe and especially of Hungary, the so-called "style hongrois", whose main actors are the professional gypsy musicians (Bellman, 1993:14) were, for European exoticism, a nearby and frequently visited exotic place from which the musical characteristics that shaped the style hongrois were drawn: strong lyricism, alternations of fast and slow parts, dotted rhythmic patterns, syncopations, virtuosic melodic developments for violin, and a more systematic use of the augmented fourth and the so-called "gypsy" scale (which can be considered as a variation of the harmonic Minor with an augmented fourth), which usually gives the exotic mark. The style hongrois, as an amalgam of Hungarian and Gypsy exotic musical elements, significantly influenced the Viennese operetta (see Lange, 2021), for whose representatives, such as Emmerich Kálmán, Johan Strauss II and Franz Lehár, constituted the ideal framework for the representation of the "Others from within" of the Empire.

However, in this recording, there are no elements of exoticism in the musical or lyrical part. This is not surprising for two reasons: a) the presence of exoticism in a musical theater performance does not imply its total aesthetic dominance over it, and b) the operetta, as a form of mass entertainment, consistently demonstrates stylistic openness, mainly as regards the addition of popular dances.

The play premiered at the Johann Strauß-Theater in Vienna on 17 November 1915, and ran until May 1917, completing 533 performances. It was one of the composer's most successful and lasting operettas, adapted in various languages and staged, under various titles, on the theatrical stages of cities in Europe, Asia, America and Australia. For example:
– In September 1916, under the title “Csárdásfurstinnan”, at Gothenburg’s Stora Teatern and at Stockholm’s Oscarsteatern
– On September 16, 1916, under its original title, at Hamburg’s Neues Operetten-Theater
– On November 3, 1916, under the title “Csárdáskirálynö”, at Budapest’s Király Színház
– On April 4, 1917, under the title “Księżniczka czardasza”, in Warsaw
– On September 24, 1917, under the title “The Riviera Girl”, at New York's New Amsterdam Theater
– In 1917, under the title “Varietéfurstinnan”, at Elsinki’s Apolloteatern
– On April 16, 1921, under the title “La princesa de la Czarda”, at Barcelona's Teatro Novedades
– On May 20, 1921, under the title “The Gypsy Princess”, at London's Prince of Wales Theatre
– On March 20, 1930, under the title “Princesse Czardas”, at Paris’ Théâtre du Trianon-Lyrique
– On July 4, 1936, under the title “The Gipsy Princess”, at Sidney’s Theatre Royal

Indicative of its success are also its film adaptations, which number seven films and cover a period of 62 years:
– “Die Csárdásfürstin”, Austrian production, 1919
– “Die Csárdásfürstin”, Hungarian production, 1927
– “Die Csárdásfürstin”, German production, 1934
– “Сильва”, USSR production, 1944
– “Die Csárdásfürstin”, West German production, 1951
– “Die Csárdásfürstin”, West German-Austrian-Hungarian, 1971
– “Сильва”, USSR produced TV movie, 1981

The duet was recorded in various languages and regions of the world, either in song form (in some cases by only one performer) or in orchestral form. For example:
– “Tanzen möcht ich”, Jacques Rotter, Vienna, around 1915 (Columbia 68497 – D-7535)
–“Csárdáshercegnő,Kozák Gábor cigányzenekara, possibly in Budapest, 1915 (Diadal 58147 – D 1476)
–“Tanzen möcht ich”, Hans Gollé, Vienna, 1916-1917 (Odeon [Ve] 904 - A 306491 and re-issue Odeon USA Am 3009)
– “Tanzen möcht ich, Walzer”, Orchestre Harmonie de Bischeim, Strasbourg, July 28, 1920 (Gramophone 21724u – 2-230608 & K944)
– “Walc”, Lucyna Szczepańska, Warsaw, 1935 (Syrena-Electro 26636 – 9576)
– “Дуэт Сильвы и Эдвина” (Duet of Silva and Edwin), Е. Я. Лебедева - М. А. Качалов (Eudokia Lebedeva – Mikhail Kachalov), Moscow, March-May 1941 (Aprelevka Plant 10834 – 10834)

The Greek musical score, with lyrics written by someone unknown, different from those of this recording, is included on pages 5 and 6 (incipit: Tha fonaxo kai tha trexo [I’ll scream and I’ll run]) of the 12-page publication "I prigkipissa tou Tsarntas" (The Csárdás Princess), which is a collection of arrangements-collations in parts of the play, such as songs and duets, and was released by the “Gaitanos” publishing house (see here) and the “Gaitanos – Konstantinidis – Starr” publishing house (see here).

The operetta, with the title "I prigkipissa tou Tzardas" (The Csárdás Princess), was presented in Greece by the “Greek Musical Troupe of Elsa Enkel” at the Municipal Theater of Athens, in the People's Square (Plateia Laou), on March 11, 1919, translated and conducted by I. Vergotis (see here and, indicatively, for other performances of the play, here, here and here).

Research and text: George Evangelou, Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis