The Hungarian revue star captures every male heart. Above all the son of a noble Viennese family, Edwin von und zu Lippert-Weylersheim, believes he has found the love of his life in a woman who is so experienced in love and life. In front of witnesses he makes her a proposal of marriage. As his family regards such a match as socially unsuitable, a marriage of Edwin to his cousin Stasi is planned. When a few weeks later in the family palace in Vienna the engagement is celebrated with a sumptious party, Sylva turns up, posing as the current wife of Edwin’s friend Boni. Edwin is immediately is captivated by her all over again and revives his desire to marry her, since she apparently is now a countess and therefore not unsuitable. At this Sylva reveals the deceit, confronts the guests with Edwin’s promise of marriage and leaves. Until the happy end, a series of confusions and misunderstandings have to be gone through in the best tradition of Viennese operetta. Edwin’s mother finally confesses that she was a cabaret singer before she climbed the social ladder to Princess by a series of shrewd marriages. And so her husband, much to his displeasure, can hardly avoid giving his assent to the marriage of Edwin and Sylva.

Hardly any other operetta contains as many hit melodies as the “Czárdás Princess” of Emmerich Kálmán (1882–1953). From “Leave women out and nothing has a chance” via “Gipsy, come and take your fiddle” to the finale “Little angels sing in thousands” the work, first performed in 1915, has tunefulness take turns to match Hungarian pep and Viennese lilt. But Kálmán’s score is no mere champagne-soaked operetta frivolity: the torrent of melody also choreographs a satirical dance on the volcano of the sinking imperial Danube monarchy whose end was imminent when it was written.

In 2007/08 director Joan Anton Rechi was proclaimed up-and-coming artist of the year by the specialist magazine “Opernwelt”. His most recent major successes have been Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” at the Aachen theatre and Szymanowski’s “King Roger” at the Mainz State Theatre.

 
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Emmerich Kálmán
Die Csárdásfürstin
(The Czárdás Princess)

Operetta in three acts
Libretto by Leo Stein and Béla Jenbach


 
In German with German surtitles
 

Musikalische Leitung Wolfram Koloseus
Inszenierung Joan Anton Rechi
Bühne Alfons Flores
Kostüme Sebastian Ellrich
Choreographie Amelie Jalowy
Licht Volker Weinhart
Chorleitung Christoph Kurig
Dramaturgie Bernhard F. Loges
 
Fürst von und zu Lippert-Weylersheim Peter Nikolaus Kante
Anhilte Cornelia Berger
Edwin Bruce Rankin
Stasi Alma Sadé
Graf Boni Káncsiánu Cornel Frey
Sylva Varescu Nataliya Kovalova
Feri Bácsi Bruno Balmelli
General Rohnsdorff Christian Bartels
Kiss, Notar Clemens Begritsch
Tänzerin Tina Vasilaki, Anastasia Siriatska, Chih-Ying Ku-Gebert, Phaedra Pisimisi, Caterina Mascia
Tänzer Joeri Burger, David Laera, Jonas Tilly, Bernardo Fallas, Alexander Andreyev
Chor Chor der Deutschen Oper am Rhein
Orchester Duisburger Philharmoniker