About the work
Operetta in three acts by Oscar Straus, with a libretto by Julius Brammer and Alfred Grünwald. Straus called the work his "favourite child" and entrusted its premiere, on 16 May 1952, to the Gärtnerplatztheater in Munich; the Austrian premiere followed on 25 October 1952 at the Landestheater Salzburg.
Plot
In a Slovak village around 1880, a slighted farmer hires the dragoon Karel Foltyn to seduce the landowner Bozena and then abandon her, to humiliate her. Genuine feelings develop between the two, however, and are tested by misunderstandings and a mysterious stranger in Bozena's circle. When the stranger turns out to be her pardoned brother, Karel and Bozena are finally united.
Cultural significance
With its choral scenes and Slavic-tinged ensemble numbers, the score reaches musically beyond the usual operetta format and is sometimes classified in scholarship as a "Volksoper". Straus wrote it in his last years, only two years before his death in 1954.