In Emmerich Kálmán’s Countess Maritza (1924), Maritza, owner of a large country estate on the Hungary/Bulgaria border, is overwhelmed with marriage proposals by impoverished noblemen. Tired of suitors who are only interested in her money, she invents a fictitious fiancé, Baron Koloman Zsupán (a character from Johann Strauss’s The Gypsy Baron) and announces her engagement. To Maritza’s amazement, a real-life Zsupán turns up at her engagement party to claim her as his fiancée.
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