Hilde Konetzni

Begun in Austria in 1944/45, finished and released in 1949, this is a biography of the minor Austrian composer Carl Michael Ziehrer, who overcomes hypersensitivity in competitive situations which leads initially to failures in both career and romance.

The operetta is one of the greatest stage works by Johann Strauss. It combines the lively waltz melodies of the golden Viennese operetta era with the fiery Csárdás sounds of Hungarian folk music. In 1954, Arthur Rabenalt filmed the operetta with Paul Hörbiger and Margit Saad in the main roles: A small village in the Puszt. A young refugee son advertises the hand of his daughter at his neighbour, a pig breeder, and even fulfils the demand for a noble title, as the gypsies living on his property have raised him to a gypsy baron. But then he falls in love with a young gypsy.