Clivia at Komische Oper Berlin

Seeing his economic interests in the Latin American country of Boliguay jeopardized by the new revolutionary government there, the US industrialist E. W. Potterton uses a movie financed by himself as a pretext for traveling to Latin America with his entire film crew. Neither the crew nor the star of his new flick, Clivia Gray, have any idea about his true intentions. Always on the lookout for a »fantastic reportage«, the muckraking journalist for the Chicago Times, Lelio Down, has also followed the film team. Gustav Kasulke from faraway Berlin turns up, too: the droll inventor wants to sell Potterton his sleep machine »Snoozewell«. Unfortunately, the film team is denied a work permit in Boliguay. But a solution is quickly found: A sham marriage between Clivia Gray and the Boliguayan gaucho Juan Damigo makes Miss Gray a Boliguayan citizen. Thus, nothing stands in the way of the work permit, and the entire film team can cross the border to Boliguay – followed by Lelio Down, who is more than fond of Juan Damigo’s resolute cousin Yola, leader of the Boliguayan army of amazons.

While on the face of it Potterton celebrates their arrival in Boliguay with a festive ball, he is orchestrating the overthrow of the new government in the background. Meanwhile, the sham marriage between Clivia and Juan has long since turned into a flaming passion. Lelio Down and Yola in turn grow rather playfully closer to each other, while Gustav Kasulke continues to wait in vain for an encounter with Potterton. The attempted coup financially supported by Potterton fails miserably. When on top of all this it turns out that Juan Damigo is none other than the revolutionary leader Juan Olivero himself, the young, passionate love between the mundane film diva and the idealistic revolutionary is once again put to the test. How much did Clivia know of Potterton’s plans to stage a coup? And does the affair between the people’s president of Boliguay and the glamorous star from Hollywood even have a future? ...