Ball im Savoy by Abraham, Från (2022/2023), Regisserad av Răzvan Mazilu,, Dirigent Mihnea Ignat, Opera Nationala Romana Timisoara, Timişoara, Rumänien

Made by Paul Abraham together with Alfred and Fritz Rotter, Berlin's leading theater producers of the early 20th century, Ball at the Savoy premiered on December 23, 1932, in the Grosses Schauspielhaus, marking the Republic's last major cultural event since Weimar. A cosmopolitan, casual and explosive show, written, produced and performed by Jews, a sparkling Operetta, which captures the fascinating German metropolis of modernity, without false modesty, a veritable explosion of freedom and the joy of living of Berlin society... Charm and exuberant energy are translated into a two-act story woven in Nice about a newlywed couple whose loyalty is put to the test. Recently returned from his honeymoon with his wife, Madeleine, Marquis Aristide de Faublas receives a telegram from his former lover, Tangolita, challenging him to a date at the annual ball at the Savoy Hotel. However, an excuse must be invented to ensure the Marquis the comfort of a tête-à-tête meeting, and the saving solution is suggested to him by his old friend, Mustafa Bey, the Turkish attaché in Paris. Aristide informs his wife that he wants to see his old friend, José Pasodoble, a very successful jazz composer, not realizing that the fabricated story raises suspicions. Under the identity of Pasodoble hides a woman, Daisy Darlington, the American friend of the marquis's wife, who made a name for herself under this pseudonym. Suspicious, Madeleine also goes to the ball, but in disguise, and finds her husband in a booth. Goaded on by Daisy, she plans to get revenge. From the wife in love she turns into the betrayed woman! At the Savoy ball she will find a partner, the young lawyer Célestin Formant, A crazy comedy, a humor with allusions and double meanings, a spirit reminiscent of Prince Orlovsky's Vienna, eccentric and explosive dances, clever interludes, specially thought out for the cursive development of the story, a last and valuable tribute to the era by the brilliant Paul Abraham, everything transposed into the sound of the 30s... ___ If we consider that Paul Abraham was forced to leave Germany only a month after the premiere and that his scores were no longer allowed to be performed, we can appreciate the intensity of the songs in this "Schlageroperette", a label he assigned scores by playwright and theater critic Volker Klotz. They became perennial despite all the tribulations, and after the war they were performed again on stage, radio and television.