Viktoria und ihr Husar

The great wide world fills the stage in Paul Abraham’s melody-packed operetta Viktoria und ihr Husar (Victoria and Her Hussar), a jazzy global success from the 1930s. The story begins shortly after the First World War: cavalry officer Stefan Koltay has escaped from a Russian prison camp and made it to Tokyo, where he seeks protection in the US embassy. Here he meets his former lover Victoria, who is now the wife of the American diplomat John Cunlight. Koltay reminds Victoria that they promised to be faithful to each other many years earlier in a small village in Hungary … This is where the complications and confusions begin: from Tokyo they have to travel back to Hungary via St. Petersburg before Victoria and her Stefan can be happy together. Songs like Meine Mama war aus Yokohama, Reich mir zum Abschied noch einmal die Hände, Ja so ein Mädel and its rich and varied local colour make this operetta a brilliant piece of entertainment.