About the work
Glückliche Reise is a three-act operetta by Eduard Künneke with a book by Max Bertuch and lyrics by Kurt Schwabach. It premiered on 23 November 1932 at the Theater am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin.
Plot
Former officers Robert von Hartenau and Stefan Schwarzenberger have built a new life on a farm in the Argentine jungle after the First World War. Their only tie to Germany is by letter: the young travel-agency clerk Monika poses as a millionairess to Stefan while also writing to Robert under the name of her unsuspecting colleague Lona. After a string of mix-ups, both couples find each other in the end.
Cultural significance
Künneke laced the score with the era's fashionable dance rhythms — tango, rumba, foxtrot — and jazz colouring; its popularity is reflected in two film versions, in 1933 and again in 1954.