The Duchess of Chicago at Komische Oper Berlin

After the great success of Bajadere last year, The Duchess of Chicago represents another jewel from the pen of the composer of The Csárdás Princess and Countess Mariza, here presented as a major Christmas operetta on the programme for December.

Among the retinue accompanying Mary Lloyd from Chicago as she visits Europe is an American entertainer who lives in Berlin, and Gayle Tufts – with her unmistakeable German-English, guides us through the story.

Charleston vs. csárdás, money vs. monarchy, American way of life vs. Hungarian respect for tradition - in Emmerich Kálmán’s work the controversies which virtually split connoisseurs and lovers of operetta into two camps during the 1920s become the theme of the work itself. The intercultural conflict between the wealthy American girl Mary Lloyd, who firmly believes that absolutely everything can be bought with a big enough cheque, and the Hungarian heir to the throne Sandor, who clings perhaps too tightly to European tradition, has its musical equivalent in the collision between Viennese waltzes and Hungarian csárdás on the one hand and fashionable American dances of the 1920s like the Charleston and the foxtrot on the other. And, just as a kiss finally unites the prince and the millionaire's daughter, the wildly different musical words are also reconciled, for after all, "a Charleston is really nothing more than an American csárdás!"