Ball at the Savoy

PAUL ABRAHAM: BALL AT THE SAVOY (Ball im Savoy), operetta in 2 acts. Libretto by Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda, translated by Gintaras Patackas. Premiere: October 3, 2014. Duration: 3 hours. Performed by the theatre’s soloists, chorus and ballet artists.

The November 7 performance is dedicated to the anniversary of soloist Raimonda Talat-Kelpšaitė.

The operetta’s plot revolves around one central event: a ball at the Savoy. Once a year, high society and bohemian guests flock to Nice, thirsty for sensational and scandalous news. To mark the occasion, the local newspaper offers a prize—a valuable painting—for the biggest sensation at the Savoy Ball. Who will win it this time? Madeleine, who will announce that she, the Marquise de Faublas, niece of a cardinal, cousin of a chamber president and wife of the Marquis Aristide, has just deceived her husband? Or Daisy, who has come from America to confess that she is the famous hit-song composer José Pasodoble and teach the ball’s guests a fashionable new dance, the “Kangaroo”?

The operettas of Hungarian composer Paul Abraham (1892–1960) stand out for their more colourful musical scores, enriched with elements of entertainment and show, and especially for their abundant rhythms of then-modern dances—slow waltz, foxtrot, rumba and others. Yet neither their structure nor their musical dramaturgy departed from the genre’s essential principles, which had prevailed for several decades. The operetta Ball at the Savoy is a striking example of late Berlin operetta-revue. It brought its composer European fame and has been filmed several times. Its subject is somewhat reminiscent of J. Strauss’s famous operetta Die Fledermaus, and it is just as delightful for its witty intrigue and charming melodies, as well as its timeless retro style.

This is not the first staging of the work in Kaunas. The production team does not plan to stray too far from the original, but promises numerous connections to the present day, especially since the plot lends itself to this: it explores the eternal complications of relationships between women and men—shadows of the past, love intrigues and tests of fidelity.

The operetta was first staged at Kaunas State Musical Theatre in 1990, with Valius Staknys as director, Stanislovas Čepinskis as conductor, Eldaras Renteris (Estonia) as set designer, and Estonian choreographers Heino Asalu and Jelena Kõlar. The principal roles were performed by Danutė Dirginčiūtė, Eleonora Kliučiūtė, Mykolas Rekys, Aušra Cicėnaitė, Lina Kinderytė, Laimutė Kuzmickaitė, Gediminas Maciulevičius, Benjaminas Želvys, Rita Preikšaitė, Dalė Rakauskienė and Tatjana Vilčinskienė.