Vienna dusts off its lost football operetta
NewsIn 1937, when Austria were the best football team in the world, the Theater an der Wien put on a new comic opera by Paul Abraham, titled Roxy and her Wonder Team.
It’s about a Scottish girl who flees her wedding to join the Hungarian XI in training.
Then it gets nasty.
Paul Abraham fled the Nazis to Cuba, got locked in a US mental home and died poor. Roxy was forgotten.
Now, the Vienna Volksoper is bringing her back (ed. is that left back, or right back? wing-back, maybe?)
It’s hardly been lost, having been revived at the Komische Oper in Berlin in recent years. It’s good fun, albeit not quite at the same level as Ball im Savoy, and there’s an absolutely filthy number about a young woman’s love of handicrafts ie Handarbeit…
The Komische Oper Berlin has had this in its repertoire for a few years now.
Apparently a movie version was made in the 30s
Here are clips from recent live stagings.
https://youtu.be/Ihc1L8fGSPc