Operettefilm uit 1970.\n"Popular from its premiere through to the mid-20th century, the operetta Der Opernball is probably the best-known work by Richard Heuberger. This DVD is a transfer of the 1970 film, which is based on a production of the work in Munich. Perhaps less familiar to modern audiences than Johann Strausss Der Fledermaus (1874) and Franz Lehárs Die Lustige Witwe (1905), Heubergers 1898 Der Opernball falls aesthetically and chronologically between those two works. The libretto for Der Opernball is a theatrical farce from 1876 by Alfred Delacour and Alfred Hennequin, and features a double deception between a pair of wives and their husbands. As to the film, the action is framed as the exchange between painter Toulouse-Lautrec and his model Giselle. The film merits attention for the effective sets, which make use of the graphic style of fin-de-siècle Paris to reinforce the style implicit in the music. This is brought to life through the choreography, with its homage to the can-can." (James L. Zychowicz, MusicWeb Int.)
