Die Herzogin von Chicago

Die Herzogin von Chicago (The Duchess of Chicago) is an operetta in two acts, a prologue, and an epilogue. The music was composed by Hungarian composer Emmerich Kálmán with a libretto by Julius Brammer and Alfred Grünwald. It premiered in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien, on April 5, 1928 and played for 372 performances. The work was presented in out-of-town tryouts in Newark, New Jersey and Springfield, Massachusetts by the Shuberts in 1929, but it did not make it to Broadway. The piece was forgotten until 1997, when the Lubo Opera Company performed it in concert in New York, after which Light Opera Works of Illinois performed the work in 1998 in a fully staged version with a new translation by Philip Kraus and Gregory Opelka. In 1999, Richard Bonynge made a recording of the work, which revived international interest in it.

The operetta mingles jazz elements and other contemporary dance music with musical elements traditionally associated with Viennese waltz-opera and anticipates such works as White Horse Inn and Paul Abraham's Victoria and Her Hussar. The score also incorporates traditions from Kálmán's native Hungary. The libretto has a relatively modern satirical edge and draws on the political cabaret that was a feature of radical Vienna, Berlin and Munich at the time. The piece directly addresses the impact of America and its social revolution, with its commentary on current affairs as seen in the jazz scene in Chicago. The piece reveals much about early 20th century European culture and European intellectual attitudes toward Americans, and American culture. The setting and score call for 1920s flapper costumes, jazz and the Charleston.

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