''The Flower of Hawaii'' (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

:''Die Blume von Hawaii'') is an

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...

in three acts by

Paul Abraham Paul Abraham (; 2 November 1892 – 6 May 1960) was a Jewish-Hungarian composer of operettas, who scored major successes in the German-speaking world. His specialty – and own innovation – was the insertion of jazz interludes into operett ...

with a

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

by Alfred Grünwald,

Fritz Löhner-Beda Fritz Löhner-Beda (24 June 1883 – 4 December 1942), born Bedřich Löwy, was an Austrian librettist, lyricist and writer. Once nearly forgotten, many of his songs and tunes remain popular today. He was murdered in Auschwitz III Monowitz conce ...

, and Imre Földes. It premiered on 24 July 1931 at the Neues Theater in Leipzig. The work was inspired by the story of Liliuokalani.Joachim Reisaus, The Return of "Blume von Hawaii" to Leipzig, (German)

Roles

*Laya,

princess Princess is a title used by a female member of a regnant monarch's family or by a female ruler of a principality. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

(

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

) *

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

Lilo-Taro, betrothed to Laya (

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

) *Kanako Hilo, a noble Hawaiian, leader of the royalist group (baritone) *Reginald Harold Stone, captain in the US Marine (tenor) *Lloyd Harrison, American governor of Hawaii (spoken) *John Buffy, his secretary (buffo tenor) *Bessi Worthington, the governor's niece (

soubrette A soubrette is a female minor stock character in opera and theatre, often a pert lady's maid. By extension, the term can refer generally to any saucy or flirtatious young woman. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means " ...

) *Raka, a Hawaiian girl (Soubrette) *Jim Boy, a black American jazz singer (buffo tenor) *Suzanne Provence, Jim's partner (played by the role of Laya) *Perroquet, head waiter *Chun-chun, Chinese servant *Admiral Makintosh (spoken) *Kaluna, an old Hawaiian (

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

) *

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

Sunny Hill (any

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound produ ...

) *Cadet Bobbie Flipps (any voice) *Marine officers, cadets, Hawaiian dancers, Hawaiians, ladies and gentlemen of society, servants

Plot

Place and time:

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo ( ; ; or colloquially ; , ; ) is an official administrative area of Monaco, specifically the Ward (country subdivision), ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Informally, the name also refers to ...

, some decades ago

Act 1

In front of a villa in Honolulu At the end of the 19th century, the US Army had occupied Hawaii and removed the Queen from power which is now held by the Governor. The Hawaiian princess Laya has resigned herself to these new circumstances and prefers to lives in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

where her parents had sent her as a girl for her education. It was already

arranged In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestratio ...

when she was a child that she would once marry Prince Lilo-Taro, but he prefers a life of travel over his home land. Many natives resent the American occupation. The Royalist Party has elected Kanako Hilo as their leader and they hope he will succeed to break the colonial yoke. Governor Harrison plans to marry his niece Bessi to Lilo-Taro to gain influence over the Hawaiian leadership. However, Harrison's secretary, John Buffy, dislikes this plan because he is drawn to Bessi himself. Captain Stone arrives in Honolulu. On board his ship are a pair of artists: the young man is the famous jazz singer Jim-Boy, and the lady accompanying him pretends to be the no less famous singer Susanne Provence. In fact, she is Princess Laya, intent to remain incognit

for a while on her return home. During the journey, Captain Stone has fallen in love with the "singer". When Kanako Hilo discovers the singer's true identity he hopes to win her as an ally in the battle against the occupiers. The Princess is not in favour of this idea, despite her being welcomed by the people as a Queen.

Act 2

Hall of the Royal Palace in Honolulu It is custom to elect a young lady as the Queen of the annual flower festival, her title: "Flower of Hawaii", and Princess Laya is to be this year's Queen. Governor Harris is concerned that the people will take this event as a trigger to revolt against the occupiers. He demands that Princess Laya sign a declaration in the name of the Hawaiian people to renounce all claims of sovereignty. When she refuses, the Governor declares her an enemy of the state and commands Captain Stone to arrest her. Filled with deep admiration for the Princess, he refuses, risking his job. To save him, Laya signs the declaration. Lilo-Taro -who by now has fiercely fallen in love with his arranged bride- misinterprets this gesture and flees in desperation to the ocean to kill himself. Now it is clear to Laya where her heart belongs.

Act 3

A Chinese bar in Monte Carlo Here, all those whose lives were connected in Hawaii meet again where the real Suzanne Provence performs. Stone and Lili-Taro have become friends since the captain saved the prince's life at the ocean. Witty and inventive, John Buffy manages to straighten out the relationships, winning Bessi for himself, and ensuring that Laya and Lilo-Taro find each other. Stone seeks consolation with Suzanne, Laya's

look-alike A look-alike, or double, is a person who bears a strong physical resemblance to another person, excluding cases like twins and other instances of Family resemblance (anthropology), family resemblance. Some look-alikes have been notable individua ...

, which is welcomed by Jim-Boy who brought the alluring Raka from Hawaii and didn't quite know how to tell his former lover Suzanne about his intentions - four happy couples.

Notable arias

*Blume von Hawaii (Slow

foxtrot The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is in a time ...

) *My golden baby (Foxtrot) *Wo es Mädels gibt, Kameraden (

March March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March. The March equinox on the 20 or 2 ...

) *My little Boy, ich bleib dir treu (Foxtrot) *Lautlos glitt der Dampfer (

Slow waltz Waltz is one of the five dances in the Standard (or Modern) category of the International Style ballroom dances. It was previously referred to as slow waltz or English waltz. Waltz is usually the first dance in the dancesport competition rounds. ...

duet A duet (italian language, Italian: ''duo'') is a musical composition for two Performing arts, performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a har ...

) *Will dir die Welt zu Füßen legen (Slow

waltz The waltz ( , meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom dance, ballroom and folk dance, in triple (3/4 time, time), performed primarily in closed position. Along with the ländler and allemande, the waltz was sometimes referred to by the ...

) *Bin nur ein Jonny, zieh durch die Welt (Slow foxtrot) *Du traumschöne Perle der Südsee (Slow waltz) *Ein Paradies am Meeresstrand (Slow foxtrot) *Wir singen zur Jazzband (Foxtrot)

Adaptations

* '' The Flower of Hawaii (1933 film)'', directed by

Richard Oswald Richard Oswald (5 November 1880 – 11 September 1963) was an Austrian film director, producer, screenwriter, and father of German-American film director Gerd Oswald. Early life and career Richard Oswald, born in Vienna as Richard W. Ornstein, ...

. * ''

The Flower of Hawaii (1953 film) ''The Flower of Hawaii'' () is a 1953 West German musical film directed by Géza von Cziffra and starring Maria Litto, Rudolf Platte and Marina Ried. It uses the music of the operetta '' The Flower of Hawaii'' by Paul Abraham, but the story was r ...

'', directed by

Géza von Cziffra Géza von Cziffra (; 19 December 1900 – 28 April 1989) was a Hungarian and Austrian film director and screenwriter. Life Cziffra was a Banat German in origin, born in 1900 in Arad, Romania, Arad in the Banat region, at that date in the King ...

. *, directed by Manfred R. Köhler,

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a Terrestr ...

shown on

ZDF ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...

References

*Translated from :de:Die Blume von Hawaii, with additions from ''Reclams Operettenführer'', Anton Würz (ed.), Stuttgart 1962

External links

Details, incl. instrumentation (German)
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070929100807/http://www.theater-plauen-zwickau.de/ecdb/gaudeamus2.loadpage?aid=9827 Theater Plauen-Zwickau (plot, German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Flower of Hawaii Operas by Paul Abraham German-language operettas 1931 operas Operas Operas set in the 19th century Operas set in the United States