The Gypsy Princess at Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre

They say no minute goes by in the world without a melody of Emmerich Kálmán's, born 125 years ago, being heard either on stage, on television, on the radio, at a concert or gala. And most often, no doubt, it is the melodies of the Gypsy Princess one hears, the one with which
the composer won the first place among leading composers of the era. It was no chance that the original venue in Vienna saw the show 533 times since after the 1915 premiere, while the piecce was presented rightaway in Sweden, Finland, Poland, Russia and Italy despite the world war, then in Budapest in November of 1916, to finally make it to Broadway a year later. Kálmán's music was praised by the local librettist P. G. Wodehouse: “The Kálmán score was not only the best that the gifted Hungarian ever wrote but about the best anybody ever wrote..."

The story is about a hopeless love of the Duke Edwin to Sylvia, a star of the Budapest Orpheum, for the family disapproves of the lowly relationship. The parents do everything in their power to lure their son back to Vienna,where an appropriate girl, the Countess Stazi awaits. To help haste matters they buy a New York contract for the chanson singer Sylvia Vereczky. But the dear foolish Count Bóni conspires to help the lovers, as does the waiter, Miska and his twin brother Alfons, the butler of the Lippert-Weilersheim house and Uncle Feri, Bóni's friend from the Orpheum. He is the main weaver of threads and is even ready to disclose the love of his youth, Edwin's mother hoping to succeed…