Gül Baba Gül Baba (died 1541), also known as Jafer, was an Ottoman Bektashi dervish poet and companion of Sultan Suleiman I () who took part in a number of campaigns in Europe from the reign of Mehmed II onwards. Biography A native of Merzifon ...

'' 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 ...

Jenő Huszka Jenő Huszka (a.k.a. ; 24 April 1875, Szeged – 2 February 1960, Budapest) was a Hungarian composer of operettas. Life At the age of 5, he had his first performance – nicely played violin. He studied composition at the Academy of Music ( ...

in three acts. It was premiered on 6 December 1905 at Király Színház in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. The story is set in the 16th century Turkish invasion of

. The

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 ...

is by Ferenc Martos.

Plot

Act I

Gabor falls in love with a Turkish girl, Leila. With his gypsy friend Mujko they enter a sacred garden in the mosque of Gül Baba. They take a rose for Leila. The guards of the mosque arrest him, because taking the sacred rose is a crime. The pasha Ali, who wants to marry Leila, sentences him to death. Gabor's last wish is to be with Leila in the garden until darkness.

Act II

Gül Baba finds that Gabor is a very good student and wants to save his life. He intervenes on Gabor's behalf with the pasha. The pasha agrees, but only if Leila will be his wife. Leila accepts this because she wants to save Gabor, but Gabor attacks the pasha with a knife. Now everything seems lost! Gül Baba destroys his rose garden and says to the pasha that it was done by Allah, who is angry because of the strict sentence.

Act III

The pasha Ali is afraid of Allah and gives a pardon to Gabor. Gül Baba regrets his destruction of the garden. However, Leila promises him that young couples will go for hundreds of years to his tomb to give him a rose.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gul Baba 1905 operas Hungarian-language operettas Operas set in Hungary Operas by Jenő Huszka

Plot

Act I

Act II

Act III

See also

References