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Suppé
Ten Belles Without a Ring (Zehn Mädchen und Kein Mann)
Operetta in 1 Act.
Libretto by Karl Treumann and others.
English Version by George Hauger.

SYNOPSIS
Herr von Klunker has ten daughters of marriageable age, but cannot find suitable husbands for them.  To improve their chances he has educated each of them in the language and manners of a different country, and has brought them all up under strict military discipline, but so far to no avail.  His latest idea has been to get his maid, Leni, to put a notice on the garden gate, advertising ten treasures available to suitable gentlemen.  His scheme works  -  a young man sees the notice and, rather hesitantly, enters.  In fact the young man has been drawn not so much by the notice but by the fact that he has fallen in love with a young lady he has seen at the garden gate  -  except that he has only seen her back and doesn't know what she looks like.  But the back view was enough for him.  The young man, whose name happens to be Paris, is given a currant bun which he must give, like the apple of his namesake, to the girl of his choice.  All of Herr von Klunker’s daughter’s now perform their party pieces before him, but none of them is the possessor of the back with which Paris has fallen in love.  Of course it soon transpires that the maid, Leni, is the object of his affections, but before Herr von Klunker gets too angry at this turn of events a chance remark leads him to discover that Paris is, in fact, his one and only long lost son.  This means that Herr von Klunker still has not found a husband for any of his daughters, so he asks Leni as her last duty before marrying his son to put the notice back on the garden gate!

(Note:  Suppé’s orchestration has not survived, and this arrangement is by Oliver Broome.)
2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons,
2 horns, 2 trumpets, 1 trombone,
Percussion,

strings.

Orchestration

A room in Herr von Klunker’s house.

Setting

}Dancers who
}sing in
}ensemble

}with others

Hidalga (Castilian)
Pomoria  (Portuguese)
Giletta  (Mexican)
Preciosa  (Aragonese)

(No chorus)

Soprano
Soprano
Soprano
Mezzo
Mezzo

Danubia (Austrian)
Alminia (Tyrolean)
Limonia  (Italian)
Marianka (Bohemian)
Maschinka (Bavarian)
Britta  (Scottish)

Leni  (Soprano or mezzo)

The daughters:

Herr von Klunker  (tenor)
Paris  (tenor)

Roles