Preview: The Count of Luxembourg

AUDIENCES at the Church Hill Theatre will be transported back to the grandeur of Paris in the early 1900s this week, when local amateur operatic company Opera Camerata present Franz Lehár’s rarely performed operetta, The Count of Luxembourg.

Opera Camerata. Pic: Comp

Written in three weeks in 1909, the piece was first performed in the Capital in 1912 and tells the story of the Grand Duke Basil, who wants to marry the famous opera singer Angèle Didier, but cannot because she has no title.

To seek a solution, he arranges a marriage between Angèle and the penniless René, the Count of Luxembourg. The wedding ceremony is performed without them seeing each other and in exchange for half a million francs, René agrees to leave Paris and return to divorce Angèle three months later.

Angèle will then have a title and the Grand Duke can marry her. Of course, Angèle and the Count fall in love... but will they have a happy ever after ending?

It was last performed here in 1996.

Founded in 1983, Opera Camerata boast a company of 32 and an orchestra of 17 for this production which is directed by Elspeth Williamson. Musical director is Alison Rushworth.

The Count of Luxembourg, Church Hill Theatre, Morningside Road, today-Saturday, 7.30pm, £12, 0131-228 115