Victoria and Her Hussar at Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre

Paul Ábrahám is one of those composers who lived a most adventurous life. He showed a prodigious ability in playing the piano at only eight, and at seventeen he had been admitted to the composition department of the Academy of Music, which - under the pressure of his family - he had to leave two years later in order to become a stock broker. While getting acquainted with the world of business, as a great admirer of American jazz, he started conducting orchestras from Budapest in his unmistakable white gloves, which later became his trademark. The immensely popular composer's life had also been a tragic one: he ended up in a mental asylum, where he died later on.

In 1930, his Victoria was born and soon conquered all the theatres of Europe starting with Wien and Berlin. It is by no wonder, since in his play Ábrahám managed to mix Kálmán's passionate Hungarian motives with enchanting and danceable jazz melodies. It is also unique by having two soubrette and two buffo roles, whose funny duets and side-splitting scenes have always been popular among the audience. The play features such evergreens as - in Hungarian - "Ahol az ember felmászik a fára", "Nem történt semmi, csak elválunk csendben", "Honvéd banda", "Mausy" and "Édes mamám".

The tale of Victoria takes place during the First World War. Captain Koltay, with his batman, Jancsi, having been escaped from a labour camp in Siberia, arrive to Japan to seek refuge at the Embassy of the United States. There they meet with the ambassador, John Cunlight, and her Hungarian wife, Victoria who, as it turns out later, is Koltay's long lost love from Dorozsma.

Paul Ábrahám had once said to the then popular theatrical journal, Theatre Life: "My success in Germany is no success at all, and my joys are not joys without the approval of my dear Budapest. I am always looking forward to hear the audience of Pest declare their final verdict on my works."