About the work
Das Hollandweibchen (The Dutch Girl) is an operetta in three acts by Emmerich Kálmán to a libretto by Leo Stein and Bela Jenbach, premiered on 20 January 1920 at Vienna's Johann Strauss Theatre.
Plot
Princess Jutta of Sonneburg-Glücksburg has been betrothed since childhood to her cousin Prince Paul of Usingen and believes herself loved through letters secretly penned by an envoy; when Paul avoids the wedding and marries her by proxy, Jutta follows him to Holland disguised as a waitress, until he genuinely falls for her.
Cultural significance
With 215 performances in Vienna alone and productions in Berlin, Milan, Budapest, Australia and the United States, the work was an initial success, but it faded quickly against newer 1920s operettas and the later Nazi ban on Kálmán's works; a 1950 radio recording conducted by Max Schönherr survives among its traces.