[1] The work is orchestrated for a flute (doubling a piccolo), an oboe, two clarinets, a bassoon, two French horns, two trumpets, a trombone, a harp, a piano and strings.
The musical comedy is set in the villa and garden of factory owner Albert Oberholzer, at the start of the twentieth century.
Anna, Oberholzer's daughter, is rehearsing a song written especially for the occasion with Kati, the household cook.
After the greetings, Anna and Kati want to perform their song, but another arrival interrupts them, that of Oberholzer's brother Alexander, the black sheep of the family, with his wife Iduna.
Iduna confides in Anna that behind the glamour of the circus there is also a darker side, and that she craves a more permanent existence.
The 1954 film adaptation by director Kurt Hoffmann starred Lilli Palmer, Romy Schneider, Karl Schönböck and Claus Biederstaedt.