Freely based on a 17th century novel, the operetta "Simplicius" is from 1887 and was a failure when it came out. The libretto is confusing with real and fake von Grübbens all over the place in the medieval setting. The hermit, Baron Wendolin von Grübben has killed his brother in a battle and has brought up his son Simplicius (a mixture of a slightly unholy fool after Parsifal and Til Eulenspiegel of the merry pranks by the other Strauss, Richard.) as a wild boy in the forest. The latter is unaware of his noble heritage and is kidnapped by soldiers, to the confusion of everyone. He is also unaware that Arnim von Grübben who he encounters in the soldiers' camp is his brother and there are romantic and other complications. Needless to say, all ends happily.
Yes, there are plenty of waltzes, polkas and marches, trademarks of the composer. Much is quite beguiling (though I am not a Strauss fan.) but, as a whole it doesn't make the greatest sense dramatically.
The singing is good with Piotr Beczala, as Arnim, a standout. The production is not bad but I fail to see the point of some aspects of it such as the huge symbols of the soldiers' boots and the hanged men (both set designs.) above the tree towards the end as well as the giant inverted "thimbles" that Arnim and his lady-love Hildegarde step across. I also don't know why many of the dancers in the big Donauweibchen-Waltzer (Danube Women Waltzes) are dancing in modern long underwear. But these are small points.
Franz Welzer-Möst conducts "Möst" ably and, considering that the DVD was done from a live performance, the usual minor disasters such as something falling from the top of the stage at one point, didn't cause any major problems.
7 and 1/2 out of 10.
