Das Lied vom Rand der Welt oder Der "Zigeunerbaron"

Johann Strauss 2025: Das Lied vom Rande der Welt or The "Zigeunerbaron"

25.03. to 03.04., 19h, music theater based on the operetta by Johann Strauss, in a new version by Musicbanda Franui (Markus Kraler / Andreas Schett), libretto by Roland Schimmelpfennig

After years of homelessness, young Sandor Bárinkay returns to his parents' country to settle down and take up his inheritance. But the inhospitable marshland at the edge of the world is already occupied. Zsupán, a rich pig farmer, has settled on the land. When Bárinkay demands his rights from Zsupán, the men quickly find an effective solution: a marriage between Bárinkay and Zsupán's daughter Arsena. Arsena, who is secretly in love with someone else, demands at least one baron as her husband. The rejected Bárinkay receives unexpected help from the local steel nomads - outcasts, marginalized members of society - who make him their “baron”.

Strauss' successful operetta "Der Zigeunerbaron", which premiered in 1885, is one of his most musically challenging, but also one of his most controversial contemporary works. To mark the anniversary year of its composer, the controversial piece will be musically and literarily reworked in order to expose the tensions it contains and place them in a contemporary context. In the new version by Roland Schimmelpfennig, one of the most frequently performed German-language playwrights of the present day, the story of obsession, love, war, social conditions and self-empowerment is reinterpreted in a way that is both fairytale-like and disparate. The Tyrolean chamber ensemble Musicbanda Franui, known for its unmistakable sound, will lend Strauss' popular melodies a new dimension with eight string players.