Viktoria und ihr Husar

The Hungarian hussar cavalry officer Stefan Koltay finds himself in Russian captivity after the First World War and is awaiting execution. But he succeeds in escaping and attempts to return to his homeland and his beloved Viktoria via Japan. Viktoria, who thinks Koltay is dead, has meanwhile become the wife of the American ambassador Cunlight with whom she lives in Tokyo. There the former couple meet once again.

When on 21 February 1930 the premiere of »Viktoria und ihr Husar« was performed at the Budapest Operetta Theatre the Roaring Twenties and what is called the Silver Age of Operetta were already things of the past. Cabaret theatre and cinema films had gained a monopoly on entertainment and the public was hardly interested anymore in what had been the successful waltz and Puszta genre of operetta. With a masterful synthesis between the exotic, the local colour of Hungary, some film dramaturgy and American jazz music, Paul Abraham and his librettists Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda successfully brought that genre, once thought dead, back to life without depriving it of its tradition. Within only a few months after the premiere, »Viktoria und ihr Husar« was then played in Leipzig, Berlin and Vienna and has been until now considered a forerunner of the musical and thus as a key work of light musical theatre. Gärtnerplatztheater is presenting the hit operetta which contains hits like »Meine Mama war aus Yokohama« and »Mausi, süß warst du heute Nacht« in the original version that was restored in 2012!

Programmheft VIKTORIA UND IHR HUSAR Leseprobe

VIKTORIA UND IHR HUSAR Besetzungszettel 2020/2021