THE LAND OF SMILES

📅Sunday, November 8, 2026, 6:00 PM

📍 Show Hall (Ion Dacian National Operetta and Musical Theatre) 

The artists of the Ion Dacian National Operetta and Musical Theatre invite you to the operetta "The Land of Smiles" by Franz Lehár. Based on a libretto by Ludwig Herzer and Fritz Löhner-Beda, it presents an impossible love story between two completely different worlds. It is a bittersweet story "crushed" by the cultural differences between European education and Chinese tradition.

While serving as ambassador in Vienna, Prince Sou-Chong meets Lisa, the daughter of Field Marshal Ferdinand Lichtenfels. Feeling strongly attracted to the young woman's beauty, Sou-Chong discreetly courts Lisa. Lisa, fascinated by the oriental world and the mystery hidden behind the prince's permanent and kind smile, embarks on a great adventure, following Sou-Chong to China.

 „If I had to invent a subtitle for Franz Lehár's operetta „The Land of Smiles”, it would be… „A Story of Illusion”. The love of the European Liza for the Chinese prince Sou Chong is a superb illusion that every woman has the right to dream of.

Today, the barrier of distance, of conceptions about the world and life, hardly exists anymore except in corners of the world where we talk about extremism. In the last century, the barrier existed.

Therefore, a love story between an emancipated European like Liza and a Chinese man subjected to the rigors of his position but, above all, to millennia-old tradition like Prince Sou Chong, cannot have a happy ending.

I am convinced that Liza was attracted from childhood by the fascination of the distant East from the stories of the 1001 Nights. As she grew up, this fascination intensified. She met the "prince from the fairy tale" and believed she had found ideal happiness. When she went into his world, she realized she was seeing the harsh reality of differences in mentality, education, and customs, experiencing the most terrible disillusionment.

Symbolically, I wanted to materialize Liza's sensitivity and soul by embodying the fascinating Luan bird from Chinese mythology. This bird, throughout the unfolding of events, takes on Liza's successive states of happiness, sadness, turmoil, and disappointment.  In contrast to the grace of this bird is the rigidity of MÄ‚ȘTII from "The Land of Smiles". As Prince Sou Chong himself says, "she hides her feelings under the mask of a smile." The mask grows, becoming too oppressive for Liza. The millenary mask knows no tolerance and does not accept it. Liza's soul does not accept compromise. Hence, the sad, inevitable ending.

Together with conductor Lucian Vlădescu, set designer Cătălin Ionescu Arbore, and choreographer Mălina Andrei, I envisioned a show in which a burning love and the coexistence of two strongly defined civilizations would awaken poetry, romance, and even drama at times in the audience, in a cinematic flow of action. Anca Albani's projections also contribute to the poetry of the images, being designed to emphasize a state, an idea, a...illusion.

Lehár's enchanting music was our main guide on this wonderful journey to the „Land of Smiles”. The consistency of the score brings this creation closer to opera music. Certainly, Lehar was influenced in his dramaturgical-musical conception by his friend Giacomo Puccini in their long discussions about the art of sounds.

Thank you to the team of the National Theatre of Operetta and Musical „Ion Dacian” for this collaboration, especially as it materializes in the year in which I celebrate 30 years of activity in the service of musical performance art.”