The world was going up in flames while Emmerich Kálmán was writing Die Csárdásfürstin, composed amidst the outbreak of the First World War. Kálmán had to interrupt the operetta’s composition due to the conflict, and the premiere took place – later than planned – in Vienna in 1915, as the theater was closed when the war started. The general state of affairs is most readily apparent in text of Die Csárdásfürstin: «Wo man tanzt und küsst und lacht, pfeif’ ich auf der Welt Misere» – «Where we dance and kiss and smile, there I’ll laugh at the world’s misery» sing the protagonists at the top of the show. And in the closing duet, the lovers invoke togetherness as a private preserve at the end of the world: «Mag die ganze Welt versinken, hab ich dich!» – «And should the whole world sink, I’ll still have you!»
For this dance on the edge of the abyss, this cheerfulness in the face of impending disaster, stage director Jan Philipp Gloger looked for a modern-day equivalent. His Zurich Csárdásfürstin is set on a luxury yacht, on which a clique of the superrich have set sail around globe, in an effort to save their collective good mood from the world’s various crises. They close their eyes to the affluent squalor in which they live and drown out their personal relationship crises with high spirits and champagne. Gloger presented the operetta as a surreal, over-the-top ride into complete disaster: Refugee boats, commercialized South Seas tourist romance, a sea full of litter, melting icebergs, and sweating polar bears dot the path of a distraction-loving society. But the operetta's swinging fun is not forgotten.
Back for this revival is Annette Dasch, singing Silva Varescu, the variety artist from humble beginnings. Pavol Breslik tries to win her over with a luscious tenor and riches galore as Edwin the prince’s son. And joining them, as in the premiere, is Swiss conductor Lorenzo Viotti, one of the younger generation’s most glamourous stars.
Sylva Varescu Annette Dasch
Edwin Pavol Breslik
Boni Nathan Haller
Stasi Rebeca Olvera
Feri Martin Zysset
Kiss/FürstJürgen Appel