For some years now, Graz Opera has been happy to depart from the operetta triumvirate of Strauss, Lehár and Kalman and perform works from its rich repertoire of rarely performed operettas. And so now Clivia, first performed in 1933, from the pen of the Austrian composer Nico Dostal, had its premiere in Graz after more than 70 years in 2022 and now appears on cpo. In order to be able to exploit the mineral resources of the South American republic of Boliguay without restriction, the American businessman H. W. Potterton grants generous credit and wants to install a compliant puppet government in the banana republic. To enable him and his accomplices to cross the border, he persuades the film star Clivia Gray to enter into a marriage of convenience with a Boliguayan. Clivia quickly finds a husband in the handsome gaucho Juan Damigo. Potterton's plans to overthrow the government fail, however, because Juan Damigo is none other than Olivero, the president of Boliguay. Clivia, who has unwittingly become entangled in Potterton's machinations, abandons the disdainful pretence, for her love for Olivero is true. With "Clivia", Nico Dostal succeeded in advancing to the very first rank of celebrated operetta composers, which was acclaimed in the "B. Z." after the premiere as follows: "Tango melodies sing, wonderfully discreet jazz is played, woodwinds flicker in between, sweet lyricism languishes, until a wild hustle and bustle in the music sweeps everything away and the salvos of applause chase each other on the open scene. Under the direction of Marius Burkert, Sieglinde Feldhofer becomes a film and operetta diva, and the president of her heart is Matthias Koziorowski.
