32^nd Festival Season - 2010

The Gypsy Princess

Music by: Emmerich Kálmán

Original German Book & Lyrics by: Leo Stein & Béla Jenbach

English Book & Lyrics by: Nigel Douglas

ACT I: Sylva Varescu, a popular Budapest cabaret singer, bids farewell to her admirers at the Orpheum Theatre before departing on an American tour. Edwin, her most ardent admirer, is ordered home to Vienna by his irate father, Prince Leopold, who, refusing to tolerate his son’s affair with a “chorus girl,” has had cards printed announcing Edwin’s engagement to his cousin, Countess Stasi. Unwilling to lose Sylva, Edwin has a lawyer draw up a contract declaring her to be his wife, the contract to be legally confirmed within eight weeks. But Sylva’s manager, Count Boni Kanscianu, tells her that Edwin is engaged to Stasi and shows her the printed announcement. Sadly, she leaves for America.

ACT II: Two months later, Edwin’s parents throw a party at which the engagement of Edwin and Stasi is to be formally announced. Sylva arrives with Boni, having persuaded him to introduce her as his wife. Edwin still loves her, and Boni becomes infatuated with Stasi. When Boni agrees to “divorce” Sylva, Edwin declares to Sylva that he can now marry her because a divorced Countess would be an acceptable mate in his social circle. But Sylva interprets this to mean that he is ashamed of her status as a cabaret singer. She announces to the party–goers that she is Sylva Varescu, shows the marriage contract to Edwin’s father, and then tears it up.

ACT III: A few hours later, Sylva and Boni have retreated to Vienna’s Hotel Winkelbaum, where they unexpectedly meet an old friend from Budapest, Feri Kerekes. Edwin arrives in pursuit of Sylva, and his father and mother arrive in pursuit of him. Feri reveals that he was once in love with an entertainer known as High–Kicking Hilda, who, after two aristocratic marriages, subsequently married Prince Leopold. The Prince can no longer oppose his son’s marriage to a woman of the stage, and there will soon be a double wedding for Edwin and Sylva, Boni and Stasi.