The performance on March 27 takes place on World Theatre Day, turning this encounter with the audience into a celebration of the art and tradition of operetta on the Bucharest stage.
Kerényi Miklós Gábor (KERO), known to the public for staging the musical Romeo and Juliet – the box-office hit of 2025 – returns to the Operetta Theatre and signs the direction of this event-performance, which enriches the institution’s classical repertoire.
The Gypsy Princess had its world premiere on November 17, 1915, at the “Johann Strauss” Theatre in Vienna. Its immediate success propelled Emmerich Kálmán’s operetta to Broadway, where it arrived in 1917 at the New Amsterdam Theatre under the title The Riviera Girl. The Romanian premiere took place in 1919 at the Modern Theatre, with Virginia Demetrescu in the leading role, and the operetta has remained known in Romania under the name Silvia.
It is considered Kálmán’s finest work, surpassing the theatre stage through seven film adaptations and numerous audio recordings.
The operetta Silvia, whose original title was Long Live Love!, follows the love story between Silvia Varescu, the star of the Orpheus cabaret in Budapest, and Edwin von Lippert-Weylersheim, an officer and heir to an old Viennese aristocratic family. Their relationship clashes with the social rules of the time, which impose on Edwin an arranged marriage with Countess Stazi.
Amid broken promises, compromising documents, family interventions, and the situational humor generated by the comic duo Boni and Feri, the libretto develops a predictable yet effective conflict between individual freedom and social convention. The final reconciliation, characteristic of the operetta universe, signifies the acceptance of love at the moment when it no longer contradicts the existing order.
Operetta in three acts by Emmerich Kálmán
Libretto: Leo Stein and Bela Jenbach
Adaptation: István Kállai and Kerényi Miklós Gábor (KERO)
Translation: Ernest Fazekas
Director: Kerényi Miklós Gábor (KERO)
Choreography: György Gesler
Set design: Csörsz Khell
Costumes: Fanni Kemenes, Gabriela Kiss
Conductor: Alexandru Ilie / Constantin Grigore
Choir conductor: Aurel Muraru
Cast
Silvia: Mihaela Alexa / Rodica Ștefan
Edwin: Octavian Ene / George Vîrban
Stazi: Daniela Bucșan / Cristina Popa
Boni: Vlad Corb / Victor Ion
Feri von Kerekes: Victor Bucur / Cătălin Petrescu
Leopold Maria: Marius Mitrofan / Anton Zidaru
Anhilte: Amelia Antoniu / Cristina Trandafir
Miska: Daniel Găină Cojuharov / Orest Pîslariu Ranghilof
Arnold Schulteis: Dragoș Ioniță/Tommer Weissbuch
Rohnsdorf: George Matei
Kiss: Septimiu Urzică / Alexandru Vasile
With the participation of the Orchestra, Choir, and Ballet of the National Operetta and Musical Theatre “ION DACIAN”