"O Thou, My Austria!"

A lively portrait of late‑19th‑century Austrian country life unfolds through the eccentric Major von Leskjewitsch and his bewildered servant Krupitschka. The Major, forever half‑in‑the‑song and half‑in‑his own patriotic fantasies, spends his mornings smoking on a vine‑covered balcony, fiddling at the piano, and debating the merits of Wagner while his wife, a prim German lady, reads the latest German Illustrated News and scolds his noisy “triumphal march.” Their home is a museum of curios—porcelain, ivory, and antiquarian glass cabinets—kept in immaculate order, yet a lone, oversized work‑basket hints at a hidden disorder.

Meanwhile, Krupitschka, ever the pragmatic bug‑catcher, trades in Spanish flies and dreams of buying a foreign dictionary, all while the Major’s temper flares over weather predictions and forgotten military glories. Their banter, the clatter of a black poodle under the piano, and the gentle absurdity of everyday aristocratic routines invite listeners into a world where humor, nostalgia, and a touch of melancholy blend seamlessly.