AustLit

Adapted and translated from one of the works of French dramatist Mélesville (Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier, 1787-1865), The Windmill was produced by the Adelaide Harmonie Society on three occasions in 1891. The libretto was a collaboration between Paul Bartels (1865-1909) and F. H. Clausen, two prominent members of the Society at that time. The South Australian Register provides a synopsis of the dramatic action:

Denise, a youthful and charming widow who is deeply in love with Jean, is continually annoyed by the persistent advances of the Marquis, an old roué and owner of the Windmill. Jean, a somewhat clownish yokel who has no conception of Denise's feelings towards him, joins the soldiers who are recruiting in the village owing to the taunts of his cousin, who loses her temper in endeavouring to arouse some return for her affection. The advances of the Marquis meeting with only indifferent success, he leaves a letter for Denise in which he proposes to elope with her. This letter she hands to Jean, who, determined to avenge the insult and with that object, writes a similar proposal to the Marquise. The Marquise, who has a suspicion of the behaviour of her lord, has been trying to arrange a match for Denise with her chef de cuisine to remove the danger, but without success. On receipt of Jean's letter she rushes to the mill in a passion, and is only pacified on the production of the original letter, when she determines to upset the plans of the Marquis and to aid Denise in her love affairs, which in the end turns out satisfactorily to all ("Adelaide Harmonie," p.6).

The Windmill was generally well-received by the Adelaide theatre and music critics, with Heuzenroeder coming in for much praise, both for his score and his supervision of the orchestra (comprising mostly local 'lady amateurs'). Writing about the June premiere, the Evening Journal's critic suggested however, that while the 'songs, concerted numbers, and choruses are tuneful, melodious, and pleasing without doubt… they are all are strikingly suggestive of other well-known melodies.' The review also notes that the preponderance of dialogue over the singing numbers in the first act was remarkable. 'As the work is an operetta this peculiarity is a decided weakness, he or she writes' ('Adelaide Harmonie Society,' p.4).

Advertised as a parody on Goethe's Faust," this four act operetta was first staged in Adelaide under the auspcies of the Deutsche Maenner Gesang Verein (German Men's Choral Society) and in aid of the Rhine Inundation Fund. Presented in German, the English-only speaking members of the audience were given a translation in the program. The South Australian Register's critic records, however, that the English words "fell rather flat on paper when contrasted with the sonorous German on the stage" ('Albert Hall: Faust and Gretchen' p.7).

Set in Germany in 1850, the libretto is described as "tolerably smart," with situations somewhat funny" (ibid, p.7). The dramatic act is set up in the beginning:

Dr. Faust (whose title is due to a bogus certificate from America) ia discovered relating some particulars of his past life. His meditations are interrupted by a students' drinking song, which revives memories of the past and determines him to return to his old life. He summons his assistant, Mepheles (who has failed to take his degree and has sunk rather low in the social scale… (ibid, p.7).

The same critic goes to to suggests that the mainspring in the fun lies among the incongruities, for we which we have costumes ranging from the antique picturesque to the modern grotesque, and the mingling of these in occasional groupins has a mirth-provoking effect… Altogether Faust and Gretchen passed off remarkably well, and smoothly enough to show that it had been carefully rehearsed" (ibid, p.7).

'Lord Midelby, an Englishmen in lodgings on the Continent, resorts to all sorts of wiles to rid himself of a musical young lady and her lover, who are constantly warbling on the floor below.' The South Australian Register's theatre critic went on to record that 'the operetta was very fairly played for amateurs, and afforded a good deal of amusement to those who were present' ('Deutscher Maenner-Gesang Verein,' 30 May 1882, p.6).

Described in the Express and Telegraph as both an 'operetta' and an 'amusing dramatic sketch which has been set to music' (3 November 1882, p.2).