It’s an afternoon of lovely music from the pen of Johann Strauss II on this week’s Sunday Opera (5/9 3:00 p.m.) with two of his lesser-known Operettas “Jabuka” or “The Apple Festival” from 1894 and “Blindekuh” or “Blind Man’s Buff” from 1878. Both works are comedies and look at the complications surrounding finding one’s true love. “Jabuka” deals with two brothers, impoverished noblemen, who work to find wealthy wives to save their home. Not only do they find their wives, they find love as well.
The cast on includes Thomas Tischler, Wolfgang Veith, Michael Schober, Veronika Groiss, and Elisabeth Wolfbauer with Christian Pollack conducting.
“Blindekuh” deals with a young couple who desperately want to get married, but her arranged marriage stands in the way. After a great deal of confusion involving the young man pretending to be two other people and the arrival of the proposed groom, everything works out for the best, and there’s a second happy ending. This cast features Martina Borotlotti, Roman Pichler, Robert Davidson, Kirsten C. Kunkle, Emily K Byrne, Julian Rohde, and James Bowers with Dario Salvi conducting.