Unlike the grim timeliness and edgy expression characterizing many of Decca’s Entartete Musik releases, Emmerich Kálmán’s operetta The Duchess of Chicago oozes froth and fluff. Here’s the story in a nutshell: Crown prince Sandor hates jazz, and pines for the good old days of sentimental waltzes and czardas. Mary Lloyd, American heiress, schemes to get the prince to dance the Charleston. Eventually they marry, and live happily ever after. Cockamamie plot notwithstanding, Kálmán’s facile tune-spinning and modest knack for musical parody (Beethoven’s Fifth meets Black Bottom) save the day. The excellent cast sails through the polyglot dialogue, brandishing a variety of convincing accents, and Richard Bonynge transforms his crackerjack Berlin Radio Orchestra into a cafe band from hell. If you cannot stomach the endless reprises padding the finales of both acts, replay the delicious Act Two waltz (disc 2, track 12), and pour yourself a hot chocolate laced with bathtub gin. Fun, if ultimately inconsequential stuff.
