Everyone deceives everyone else here: Eisenstein has to go to prison for insulting a civil servant. His friend Dr. Falke advises him to make a big splash at Prince Orlofsky's ball beforehand. Falke is secretly planning his revenge for the fact that Eisenstein once let him stagger home dressed as a bat to the delight of the whole town. Eisenstein's wife Rosalinde takes advantage of her husband's absence to meet her lover Alfred (who is then sent to prison instead of Eisenstein) and therefore releases her maid Adele. She, in turn, claims to have to visit a sick aunt - in fact, she wants to go to the ball. There, everyone hides behind a false identity. The flirting is accordingly uninhibited - until everyone meets again in prison the next morning ...
Johann Strauss' lively and ambiguous operetta about the fragility of social facades has been a champagne hit since its premiere in 1874. The Gärtnerplatztheater presents this classic in a new production by State Director Josef E. Köpplinger.