About the work
Comic opera in two acts by Ignaz Brüll to a libretto by Salomon Hermann Mosenthal, based on a story by Mélesville, first performed on 22 December 1875 at the Royal Court Opera in Berlin.
Plot
During the Napoleonic Wars, the young nobleman Gontran de l'Ancre falls in love with Christine, sister of the innkeeper Nicolas Pariset, but conceals his true rank from her because of the difference in their social standing. When Gontran is called up for military service, he leaves Christine a golden cross as a token by which they might recognise each other again. Mistaken identities and class differences delay their reunion until the cross finally brings the lovers back together.
Cultural significance
The premiere was a resounding success, with Emperor Wilhelm I personally congratulating the composer, and within a few years the opera had reached more than 180 stages, including London in 1878 and New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1886. After 1933 the Nazi regime banned the opera because of Brüll's Jewish descent, and it largely disappeared from the repertoire thereafter.