Die Zirkus­prinzessin

A circus in St. Petersburg, a princely palace and a Viennese hotel – these are the places where circus folk, Russian nobility and young people from Vienna meet to revel in the rapture of love. But whether the son of an hotelier will be allowed to marry a circus rider and a Russian princess should trust the mysterious artist Mister X remains uncertain until the general masquerade and the intrigues of the jealous Prince Sergius have been exposed...

However different the locations for the action may be: Emmerich Kálmán is able to give each of them their own characteristic atmosphere. Whether set amidst Slavonic elegance, nervous sentimentality or the nonchalance of Vienna, events are surrounded by dreamy melodies which throw a light on the settings that can be sometimes serious and sometimes cheerful. The star-studded first performance of the "Circus Princess" at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna in 1926 was an overwhelming success. The audience marvelled at the enchanting music, the dazzling acrobatics of the dance numbers, the opulent costumes and, not least, the legs of the ballerinas. In Berlin too, the work was a success, opening a pathway to Broadway for Kálmán.

In Kooperation mit der Deutschen Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf Duisburg

Programme extract