Music Theater Linz

The “devil’s violinist” in a duel with love

Rehearsal visit: Samira Dietze contributes a violin solo; Matjaž Stopinšek sings Paganini(Bild: Farbwerk/Liz Blur)

A highlight of the fall theater season is approaching: Thomas Enzinger is staging Franz Lehár's operetta "Paganini" at the Musiktheater Linz. The focus is on the legendary "devil's violinist" with his passion and his women. Sparkling solos on the violin are planned. The premiere is on Saturday.

"I sing what I feel in my soul as Paganini: I am a passionate card player, love women - and my violin! I 'breathe' my life with all my heart!" is how Matjaž Stopinšek describes his role as Niccolò Paganini (1782 to 1840). He sings and plays Italy's "devil's violinist", who was already considered a legend during his lifetime.

"A challenge", says director Thomas Enzinger, he wants to counter the "almost naïve story" that Franz Lehár used as a libretto "without smashing the piece".

First rehearsal photos: Matjaž Stopinšek as Paganini.(Bild: Barbara Pálffy)

Melodies, tricks and other gimmicks
That's why there is a frame: An ailing, torn Paganini reminisces. There are also dancers to illustrate the stages of his life and inner conflicts. At the center, however, is a stirring love story.

With great hits for almost 100 years
Lehár composed great melodies for the operetta, which premiered in Vienna in 1925, which he had once written for Richard Tauber. And there are two large and two smaller violin solos that Lehár modeled on Paganini's art.

Three members of the Bruckner Orchestra share this "high-performance sport" on the violin, including 26-year-old Samira Dietze. "I am fascinated by the virtuosity, the variety of emotions that are projected onto the instrument," she says in the "Krone" talk: "I am, so to speak, a nuance of Paganini's inner world."

The operetta's biggest hit is "Gern hab' ich die Frau'n geküsst", Enzinger wants to put the song in a "contemporary context".