FULL CLIVIA (Dostal) Magdeburg 2025 Anja Backus, Andreas Bongard, Carmen Steinert, Jeanett Neumeister

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: CLIVIA  
• Composer: Dostal Nico   
• Libretto: Charles Amberg    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Theater Magdeburg, Germany  
• Recorded: November 9, 2025
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Anja Backus, Andreas Bongard, Carmen Steinert, Jeanett Neumeister, Benjamin Sommerfeld, Undine Dreißig, Vincent Casagrande, Niklas Hummel, Rainer Frank
• Conductor: Kai Tietje  
• Orchestra: Magdeburgische Philharmonie  
• Chorus: Opernchor des Theaters Magdeburg  
• Chorus Master: Martin Wagner  
• Ballet: Ballett Theater Magdeburg  
• Choreographer: Daniel & Daniela Ojeda Yrureta  
• Stage Director: Julien Chavaz  
• Stage Designer: Mariia Bokovnia, Julien Chavaz  
• Costume Designer: Jean-Jacques Delmotte  
• Lighting Designer: Eloi Gianini  

Information about the Recording

• Format: DVD
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs, desubs  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

Clivia is a 1933 operetta by Nico Dostal to a libretto by Charles Amberg. The premiere was 23 December 1933 at the Berlin Theater am Nollendorfplatz. The plot concerns the adventures of a film star, Clivia Gray, in the South American republic of Boliguay and her romance with the Boliguayan president. The premiere featured Lillie Claus, later Dostal’s wife, and Walter Jankuhn in the tenor role of the president.

Plot
The operetta is set in Boliguay, a fictional republic in South America, at the time when the operetta premiered, i.e., in the 1930s.

Act One
Image: Estancia in the mountains

American E.W. Patterton is an influential financial magnate with shady business ties to the Republic of Bolivia. The fact that a revolution has just taken place there, in which General Juan Olivero was proclaimed president, thwarts his plans. But Patterton wouldn’t be Patterton if he didn’t know a way out. After all, money can solve anything. So he promptly founds a film company. With his crew, which includes the well-known actress Clivia Gray, he sets off for Bolivia, ostensibly with the sole intention of filming; however, the border guards deny the team entry, claiming that foreigners are not eligible for work permits.

Caudillo, the owner of the estancia where the film crew is staying, has a solution: one of the women on the crew should simply marry a Bolivian citizen in a sham marriage. This would grant her Bolivian citizenship, allowing her to enter the country with the entire film crew. Because Clivia is a desirable young beauty, Patterton immediately chooses her as his victim. She suspects that Patterton has less than honorable intentions, but the plan intrigues her. All that’s needed now is a Bolivian willing to marry her. The Chicago Times reporter accompanying the crew is tasked with finding a suitable candidate. It isn’t long before he arrives with Gaucho Juan Damigo. He initially refuses the money offered, but upon seeing Clivia’s beauty, he quickly agrees to marry her.

Act Two
Image: Hotel ballroom

The film crew has now been granted entry to Bolivia and is staying at the capital’s most prestigious hotel. To prepare for the coup against the government, Patterton has invited various opposition politicians and other influential figures. As a cover, he is hosting a party in the hotel ballroom. Little does Patterton know that the secret service of his host country has already uncovered his plan and that his guests have been infiltrated by a few undercover agents.

Even though Clivia and Juan Damigo’s marriage was only a sham, they grow closer and closer, even falling in love. As the festivities reach their climax, the trap snaps shut. The film crew is arrested and imprisoned. Now the unsuspecting filmmakers learn who the gaucho Juan Damigo really is: Olivero, the current president of the republic!

Act Three
Image: Conference room in the Presidential Palace

Olivero cannot concentrate on affairs of state because Clivia is still haunting his thoughts. After everything that has happened, he doubts her love. On the other hand, he is also unsure whether Clivia was merely a pawn in Patterton’s ludicrous plan. Then the reporter Lelio Down, who has since fallen in love with Olivero’s cousin Yola, comes to his aid with a saving idea: he should simply arrange for Clivia and Patterton to escape. Depending on how she behaves, he will know whether she is serious about her love for him.

Lelio Downs’s proposal is carried out. Patterton knows his coup plans have completely failed. He resigns himself to his fate and manages to escape across the border. Clivia, however, seeks out the President and publicly announces that Patterton had more or less forced her into the sham marriage. Now, she wants to make it a real marriage. Olivero now knows that Clivia truly loves him. The operetta ends with the people cheering their President and the future First Lady.

Quoted from Wikipedia

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