Johann Strauss' most popular operetta from 1874 is a social satire that is both clever and cheerfully ironic and whose entertainment value and musical esprit have lost none of their fascination.
Dr. Falke cannot forget that Gabriel von Eisenstein left him alone in a bat costume after a night of drinking together, exposing him to public ridicule. He will repay him for this disgrace with an elaborate intrigue. Shortly before Eisenstein is due to serve a prison sentence of several days for insulting a civil servant, Falke persuades him to spend the evening at Prince Orlofsky's lavish ball.
The prospect of erotic adventures and exuberant amusement does not make Eisenstein hesitate for long. His wife Rosalinde immediately seizes the opportunity and returns the advances of his childhood sweetheart Alfred. Suddenly, the new prison warden Frank bursts in to arrest Eisenstein himself. Alfred defuses the delicate situation by allowing himself to be taken away without complaint as Rosalinde's supposed husband. A little later, the carnivalesque hustle and bustle picks up speed at the Russian prince's masquerade party, especially as almost everyone there pretends to be someone else: Eisenstein romps as the "Marquis de Renard" with his own disguised chambermaid Adele, until a mysterious Hungarian beauty turns his head. Unsuspectingly, he courts his own wife. After champagne-soaked intoxication, total disillusionment follows in prison, as marital certainties prove to be a deceptive illusion and bourgeois respectability a façade of the abysmal.
Premiere Zwickau December 2, 2023
Further performances in Zwickau: December 3 and 31, February 11 and March 21, 2024
Premiere Plauen January 13, 2024
Further performances in Plauen: January 21, February 2, March 26, April 13 and May 11, 2024
