Those who doubted the prosperity of The Great Waltz once it left the airy reaches of its own Center Theatre in New York were in for a happy surprise when it opened at the Opera House on Thursday night. It is still the same lilting four-start musical that ran for a year in New York.

For one thing, the stage of the Opera House has been cleverly mechanized so that none of the trick effects had to be deleted. The scene changes are as swift as ever, and in the brilliant ball room scene in the second act a full orchestra playing the Blue Danube Sweeps out to the footlights like a musical glacier and then recedes to make room for a galaxy of lovely ladies and their partners.

The rather slight story of The Great Waltz is built around the careers of the Johann Strausses--father and son. Guy Robertson lends grace to the figure of Young Strauss as an artist in love, praying for recognition for his music, and balked by a jealous father. Marie Burke is very satisfying as the Countess who sponsors his career and finally brings him his "great chance".

But the things that make the Great Waltz worth going to see are Hazard Short's brilliant stage effects, the lovely evolutions of the Albertina Rasch ballet--and, above all, the Strauss Waltzes which weaves their way through the production casting a spell of Viennese laughter and gayety.