A Woman Who Knows What She Wants!

Glamour queen Manon Cavallini is an operetta diva idolized by all men. Raoul Severac has also succumbed to her allure—much to the displeasure of young Lucy, who’s fallen head over heels for the dapper bachelor. She therefore asks the great diva to forego Raoul and leave him to her. What she doesn’t know: Manon is her mother ...

With A Woman Who Knows What She Wants, Oscar Straus, one of the most successful operetta composers of the 1920s and 30s, created a masterpiece. Its wild mix of waltz and foxtrot perfectly embodies the operetta style of the Weimar Republic. With hits like ‘Why Shouldn’t a Woman Have a Relationship?’ and ‘Every Woman Has a Longing of Some Kind’, Straus boldly toppled the gender clichés of the day.

Therefore Lucy implores her father to arrange a meeting between herself and Cavallini, so that Lucy can plead with her to turn Raoul down and leave him to Lucy. What the young girl doesn’t know is that Manon is her mother, and that her father has used the courts to deny Manon any contact with their daughter. Out of love for her child, Manon turns Raoul down. During an intimate dinner, she shows Raoul her permissive lifestyle, and draws his attention to Lucy.

After Raoul and Lucy are married, Lucy learns of a secret meeting between her husband and Cavallini. Suspecting an affair, Lucy is hellbent on revenge, there and then deciding to betray her husband with a family friend, the tennis champion Fernand Maupreux. Yet Manon manages to foil the affair by luring Maupreux into a chambre séparée and there guiding all his amorous attentions onto herself. When Lucy appears, Manon reveals herself to be her mother, instantly dispelling all the jealousy: Lucy’s marriage is saved – and mother and daughter are finally united!