Viktoria und ihr Husar

Viktoria und ihr Husar (Victoria and Her Hussar) is an operetta in three acts and a prelude by Paul Abraham with a libretto by Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda, based on a work by the Hungarian Emmerich Földes (also Emric or Imre Foeldes).

It premiered under the baton of the composer on 21 February 1930 in Budapest. The German premiere was on 7 July 1930 in Leipzig, and it was then given on 23 December 1930 at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna. An adaptation into English by Harry Graham was performed at the Palace Theatre in London on 17 September 1931.

The operetta takes place after the end of the first world war in a Russian prison camp in Siberia, as well as in the cities Tokyo (Japan), St. Petersburg (Russia) and the Hungarian village Dorozsma near Szeged.

Stefan Koltay, Cavalry Master of the Husars, and his batman Jancsi have become prisoners of war to the Russians. Because they both joined with a group that planned a counter-revolution, and was revealed, they have been sentenced to death and are now awaiting their execution. Jancsi plays a sorrowful Hungarian melody on his violin one last time. The melody speaks so to the Cossack guard that he promises the two Hungarians that he'll release them, if only he can receive the violin in exchange for their freedom. Stefan Koltay and Jancsi don't have to consider long, and after they have given the violin to the Cossack, they both leave the prison camp immediately and escape towards Japan.

The wife of the American ambassador John Cunlight, the countess Viktoria, used to be engaged to the Cavalry Master Stefan Koltay. She waited for him a long time after the war was over. Only after she received the message that he had fallen, did she slowly let herself be convinced by John Cunlight, to finally marry him.

Stefan Koltay has heard that there are, in the US embassy in Tokyo, some fellow countrymen awaiting a passage to Hungary. He goes there with the intention of joining them, and so meet his beloved Viktoria after years apart. She introduces him to her husband under a pseudonym. Koltay also learns that the ambassador has been transferred to St. Petersburg and that the journey from Tokyo will take place in a few days. Further, Viktoria's brother, Count Ferry, and his fiancee, the Japanese O Lia San, are about to journey on. John Cunlght has no idea of the past that connects his wife with the newly arrived Hungarian, and invited Stefan Koltay and his friend Jancsi to travel with them, under diplomatic protection. From St. Petersburg they will then surely find an opportunity to safely travel on to Hungary. Jancsi is overjoyed, since he immediately fell in love with Viktoria's pretty chamber maid, Riquette, and now sees the opportunity to stay close to her.

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