Operette (1940)

The impoverished actor Franz Jauner becomes a director at the Theater an der Wien through the patronage of its director, Marie Geistinger. Despite their successful collaboration, they fall out. After the disappointing premiere of the operetta Die Fledermaus at the Theater an der Wien, Jauner stages a successful surprise production at the Zur Tigerhöhle restaurant. He moves to the Carltheater, where he achieves triumphs with operettas. Geistinger, who is secretly in love with him, is left behind. The two meet again in the artist Hans Makart’s studio. Geistinger speaks disparagingly of the supposedly inferior operetta genre, and plans to move to Berlin. Jauner, who praises the zest for life that operetta brings, is left alone. Geistinger becomes a celebrated actress in character roles, while Jauner rises to become director of the Vienna Court Opera. They meet again at Geistinger’s engagement to Prince Esterházy and, after a musical exchange of blows, realize that both of them have been unfaithful to operetta. Jauner becomes director of the Ringtheater, but after a devastating fire at his first premiere, he has to spend three months in prison. Shunned by the public, he then tries in vain to find work in the theater again. Geistinger, who in the meantime has had to give up her acting career because of damage to her vocal cords and airways, takes Jauner, now embittered, under her wing. She attends the premiere of his production of the operetta Der Zigeunerbaron and pointedly directs the audience’s applause toward him with a “Bravo, Jauner!”