Die Csárdásfürstin

Kálmán was working on Die Csárdásfürstin when the First World War broke out, and it reached the Johann Strauss-Theater in Vienna on 17 November 1915, with a libretto by Leo Stein and Béla Jenbach about a Budapest cabaret singer and an aristocratic suitor. The subject — a marriage across class lines, set in a world of nightclubs — was played to a city at war, and the piece was staged in Budapest the following year as A csárdáskirálynő. Kálmán, born in Hungary and trained in Budapest alongside Bartók and Kodály, built the score on csárdás rhythms.