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Gerhard Bronner: Der g´schupfte Ferdl#

Gerhard Bronner

A universally-talented composer, musician and Cabaret actor, Gerhard Bronner (1922 Vienna) started an unusual career on the stage and in radio after returning to Austria from exile in 1948. One of his most popular chansons, Der g'schupfte Ferdl (1952), a parody in Viennese dialect that effectively uses music and acting (and therefore becomes universal), tells the tale of the Vienna original Ferdinand Valek whose criminal record covered fifty-two convictions and who the composer once encountered in a Viennese bar. Typical Viennese elements are subtly expressed in the melody, the sensitive harmony and the special nuances that the actor-singer must supply himself. The illustration shows Bronner at the time of his first successful appearances in Vienna. (M. Saary)

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