Gerhard Staab

Vienna during the fin de siecle. Farmer's daughter Anuschka has to sell the farm after her father's death to the rich but mean farmer's wife Nowarek and her friendly son Jaro. Anuschka goes to Vienna and starts to work as a housemaid until she is wrongly accused of theft.

In the mountains of the Ötztal, the wealthy Fender (Eduard Köck) and Wally (Heath Hatheyer), his only daughter and heir, manage a small farm. He wants to marry the rich, but boring, Vincent (Leopold Esterle). Wally escapes to a mountain hut, where she lives alone and withdrawn. Her love belongs to the hunter, Joseph (Sepp Rist). When she unwisely takes a young vulture from its nest and is attacked by the mother, Joseph comes to her aid and from that point on, she fondly calls him her "Geierwally". He also feels attracted to her, but Wally can't escape the feeling, that the young Afra is his mistress. Mad with jealousy, Wally announces that she'll marry the one who kills Josef. Vincent wants to earn her hand and is determined to kill the Geierwally. Just in time, though, the actual relationship between Joseph and Afra is clarified.

English Lord Arthur Cavershoot is a passionate Napoleon scholar who badly neglects his wife Josephine for his obsession with the French emperor. When the cranky historian travels to a Napoleon conference in Paris, his smart spouse secretly follows him. Unnoticed by her, the city of love threatens to spark a romance between Arthur and a chorus girl.

The delightful Johann Strauss comic opera Die Fledermaus was mercilessly lampooned in this truly bizarre production. For starters, a framing device has been added: After appearing in 300 consecutive appearances of Fledermaus (which translates as The Bat) the lead tenor (Georg Alexander) imagines that he's seeing bats everywhere. Driven a bit over the edge by all this, he falls asleep and has a nightmare about the opera, with a group of non-singers cast in the leading roles. The original libretto about romantic assignations, political imprisonments and mistaken identity is burlesqued to the hilt: at one point, the hero finds out that his prison cell is surrounded by rubber tubes!