Messeschlager Gisela

The guys in Rüdersdorf are at it again. They have just announced the new operetta production that will be shown as part of their summer festival. And, lo and behold, it really is a revived “DDR Operette,” i.e. a work written during socialist times in Germany: Gerd Natschinski’s Messeschlager Gisela (1960).

The poster for the 2014 production of “Messeschlager Gisela”.

As you might remember, the operettas written in East Germany before 1989 were not called “Operette” but “Heiteres Musiktheater,” which also included Musicals. The works tried to show how life in Socialism worked, as is the case in Messeschlager Gisela. Or they showed how life in corrupt capitalist countries such as the United States of America works, as in Guido Masanetz’ In Frisco ist der Teufel los. Or they turned back to the 19th century to create an equivalent to My Fair Lady, as is the case in the Oscar Wilde adaption of Mein Freund Bunbury, also written by Natschinski in 1964.

His Messeschlager was revived after the so called “Wende” and shown in a charming production at the Neuköllner Oper, directed by Peter Lund. But though that was a smash success, the show has not been seen since. Which makes it all the more interesting to go to Rüdersdorf this summer. On the week-end 19/20 July, and again at the beginning of August, this fabolous piece about fashion and the socialist fashion industry can be seen at 16h in the Museumspark Rüdersdorf, i.e. in open air performances.

For more information, click here.