La Fleur – Das Phantom der Operette

In the organizer's words:

In French, German and English

In a mix of historical and contemporary entertainment cultures, the transnational collective La Fleur examines the socio-political context of Viennese operetta based on the life and work of Emmerich Kálmán.

Kálmán, a Hungarian Jew, was Vienna's most successful composer before his works were banned by the Nazis and he was forced to emigrate to the USA. Accompanied by a string quintet, the performers sing, dance and analyze the operetta from a post-colonial perspective. They not only deal with the fruitful exchange between European and non-European art, but also with the containment and flattening of the once flourishing genre in post-war Germany.

The result is a witty, virtuoso performance that looks behind the glamorous façade of the genre to question stereotypes and conventions. It shows that show business offers more than a supposed escape from reality in dark times.