In Fris­co, all Hell's bro­ken out

In San Francisco, money is tight and old sailors like Jonas are left to sleep rough in the crime-ridden port city. Unexpectedly, the boatman Anatol Brown inherits the Hotel Nevada, the last building yet to fall into the hands of the greedy nightclub magnate, Xonga Miller. The problem is that Anatol’s uncle happens to have accumulated a mountain of debt with her. If Anatol can’t raise the $10,000, his dream of turning the Nevada into a home for retired sailors will come to nothing. With a huge fundraiser involving plenty of booze, the sailors of Frisco ultimately manage to scrape together the money, just in time.

After the great success of Gerd Natschinski’s East German operetta Gisela, Hit of the Trade Fair, the Komische Oper is turning its attention to another gem from East Germany’s ‘light-hearted music theatre’: Guido Masanetz’s 1962 musical jaunt into the capitalist abroad, In Frisco, All Hell’s Broken Out. Its rough seaman’s humor and dance-happy East German take on American life can now be experienced in a semi-concert version.

The Nevada Hotel is the only business in the harbour of San Francisco that is not yet controlled by the pro  t-hungry Xonga Miller. Unexpectedly, the launch operator Anatol Brown inherits the hotel – together with sizeable debts his uncle ran up. If Brown cannot pay back the 10,000 dollars by midnight, the hotel, which has been pledged as security, will be snatched up by the unscrupulous creditor Xonga, putting paid to his dream of converting it into a home for old sailors.