At this year's Seefestspiele Mörbisch, the "Zigeunerbaron" (Gypsy Baron) will be presented, which, due to its content alone, fits ideally into the ambience of the surrounding Burgenland landscape. "Der Zigeunerbaron" is one of the greatest stage works by Johann Strauss. He combines the lively waltz melodies of the golden Viennese operetta era with the fiery Csárdás sounds of Hungarian folk music. Johann Strauss would also have liked to have experienced his work, conceived as a "comic opera", on an opera stage. It was not until years after his death that "Der Zigeunerbaron" was performed in 1910 at the Semperoper in Dresden and at the Wiener Staatsoper, then still known as the "Hofoperntheater".
The production in Mörbisch will for the first time be directed by the director of the Tiroler Landestheater, Kammersängerin Brigitte Fassbaender, who after an extraordinary career as a mezzo-soprano has enjoyed an excellent reputation as a director for many years. Among the soloists of the performance are tenor Lucian Krasznec (gypsy baron Sándor Barinkay) and soprano Evelin Novak (Saffi). The artistic director Harald Serafin embodies the role of the royal commissioner Conte Carnero and also his son Daniel Serafin is in the role of Count Homonay again in Mörbisch. With Wolfgang Bankl as Kálmán Zsupán, a highly esteemed and long-standing ensemble singer of the Wiener Staatsoper will guest on the open-air stage. For the first time the Upper Austrian Manfred Mayerhofer, who is also well versed in operetta and especially Strauss, will conduct.