In Bad Ischl, Berlin is spoken and people travel to the moon: the Lehár Festival shows “Frau Luna” as an exaggerated, thrilling revue operetta.
Fast-paced moon dwellers in sexy glitter costumes who sing about the “Berlin air” as well as a space-traveling mechanic. A woman lolling lasciviously on star-shaped cushions in the moon and a prince shooting star, who sometimes bounces like a rubber ball when he doesn’t land with the chosen one. “Frau Luna”, the operetta by Paul Lincke, which premiered in 1899, offers the Lehár Festival Bad Ischl the opportunity to present a large revue including numerous popular hits such as “Das ist die Berliner Luft”, “Oh Theophil” and “Schlösser, die im Monde lie” on the stage of the congress and theater building. On the other hand, the libretto by Heinz Bolten-Baeckers also invites you to present the over-the-top.
And director Ramesh Nair draws twice from the full. In the stage design of Toto you simply start in the sublet room in Berlin, where the mechanic Steppke dreams of a trip to the moon and tinkers with a machine, in keeping with the zeitgeist of the year of the premiere. Like so many people back then, he is working on a patent, his is supposed to let him “drive through the sea of clouds”. A balloon basket rolling across the stage is enough to convey: The breakthrough in aeronautics has been successful, Steppke is traveling with his partner and landlady on the moon.