The Opera Ball - Schedule, Program & Tickets

Operetta by Richard Heuberger

Libretto by Victor Léon and Heinrich von Waldberg
New version by Moritz Franz Beichl and Andreas Kouba

In German with German and English surtitles

Georges and Marguérite want to bring some excitement back into their marriage, so they invite the newly engaged couple Paul and Angèle to their Paris apartment. Marguérite manages to persuade Angèle to take part in a test of fidelity with a partner swap: The ladies write their two husbands two identical invitations to a rendezvous with a mysterious "pink domino" at the opera ball. The invitations are delivered by the discreet maid Hortense, who cunningly writes a third, identical letter to Angèle's sister Henriette. If only Aunt Palmira doesn't find out about her nieces' pranks! But wait a minute - where is Uncle Theophil ...?

When Richard Heuberger premiered his first operetta Der Opernball in 1898, he was already 47 years old, but was determined to renew the genre: he wanted it to be graceful instead of vulgar, more musical drama and less pop. The old Wagnerian naturally incorporates leitmotifs into the airy music of his conversational operetta: the fateful "pink domino" runs through the entire score as an indiscreet red thread. In the seventh production of Heuberger's classic at the Volksoper Wien, director Moritz Franz Beichl leaves the opera ball in Belle Époque Paris and sets off in search of the tear in the wallpaper of perfect bourgeois married life.

Subject to change without notice.