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Adam Aston - Tangolita, 1934

3,909 views · Published 3 April 2016 · 3:05 · Indexed 4 November 2026

Channel: 240252 · 2016 · Music

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Adam Aston & Orkiestra Syrena Rekord (dir. by Iwo Wesby?) – Całować umiem tak jak Tangolita (I Can Kiss Just Like Tangolita) Tango z opt. “Bal w Savoy’u” (From Operetta “Bal in Savoy") Muz. P. Abraham, sł. Andrzej Włast, Syrena-Electro 1934 (Polish)

NOTE: The Warsaw premiere of Paul Abraham’s operetta „Ball in Savoy” was staged in theatre Wielka Operetka [Grand Operetta; formerly: the cabaret Rex, located in a former hippodrome) by an experienced manager Andrzej Włast who, after collapse of his beloved music-hall “Morskie Oko” in 1932, was nervously looking for new opportunities for himself. To his delight, the show became a great success, it couldn’t have been otherwise with mega-stars like Alexander Żabczyński, Nina Grudzińska ex aequo with Janina Kulczycka, Loda Halama or Wojciech Ruszkowski featured in it.  However, Ludwik Sempoliński (a veteran of prewar Warsaw cabaret) decribes in his memoirs two funny, yet, in a way also ominous events, which happened during the premiere. First: the stage design was based on a wrong calculation so when the boys-ballet appeared on the stairs, the construction started to crack and sway. Hadn’t it been for the strongman Woycieszko – the choreographic director of the theatre – who propped up the whole structure on his own back, until the revue number was over – there would’ve had been a true catastrophe during the show.  The second mishap was Nina Grudzińska’s prolonged entrance onto the stage to sing her headline number “Tangolita”. The star was known as very demanding as for her looks, so she was still in her wardrobe taking pains to make her beauty  more and more shining, although the introduction was already played by the orchestra. The introduction was played and played several times, making the audience more and more nervous until, finally, the star emerged on stage and everyone’s throat, already prepared to the angry roar, got choked with delight... The success of “Ball in Savoy” enabled director Andrzej Włast to prepare a similar premiere in April 1935, which was Ralph Benatzky’s international hyper-hit “Im Weissen Rössl” (The White Horse Inn). After that, unfortunately, theatre Wielka Operetka bankrupted and within it’s empty walls, the tireless director Andrzej Włast opened something he loved most of all: another music-hall called “Wielka Rewia” (The Grand Revue).  And it was a success again.

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