Johann Strauss II - Pappacoda - Polka-française, op. 412

Hailed by the critic of the Vienna Margen-Post (10.10.1883) as "so catchy that one wants to hear it again and again and again", the music of Johann Strauss's ninth operetta, Eine Nacht in Venedig (A Night in Venice), afforded its composer the opportunity to arrange no less than six separate orchestral dance pieces from its melodies. Amongst these numbers is the Pappacoda-Polka française which takes its name from the comic figure of Pappacoda, the macaroni cook in Strauss's operetta, which was first staged in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien on 9 October 1883 following its inauspicious world première in Berlin on 3 October that year.

Although one might reasonably have expected Strauss to have incorporated into his Pappacoda-Polka the refrain from the young comic's Act 1 (No. 1) couplet, "D'rum sei glücklich, sei selig Venezia! Pappacoda, Pappacoda, Pappacoda ist da!", he felt instead that the character of the music was better suited to the quick polka he crafted from themes in the operetta, So ängstlich sind wir nicht! (op. 413), where it may be heard in the main section. Two sources comprise the principal section of the Pappacoda-Polka: theme 1A owes its origins to the Ac t 3 (No. 16) 'Spottlied' (satirical song) for Annina and ladies' chorus, "Ein Herzog, reich und mächtig", while theme 1B is based on a phrase sung by Caramello in his Act 1 (No. 4) entrance song to the words "Ich leb' dort wie im Himmel". The entire Trio section of the polka derives from Pappacoda's solo in the Act 2 Finale (No. 13), "Take, take, tak, erst hack' ich fein".

In the confusion and excitement following the 'double première' of Eine Nacht in Venedig in Berlin and, just six days later, in Vienna, the first performance of the Pappacoda-Polka française passed unnoticed by the music reviewers. It must, however, have been played for the first time at one of the Strauss concerts in the capital immediately following the Viennese première of Strauss's operetta on 9 October 1883, since the printed edition of the polka was announced on 5 December of that year.

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