About the work
Comic opera in three acts by Heinrich Marschner to a libretto by his brother-in-law Wilhelm August Wohlbrück, first performed on 19 February 1838 at the Royal Court Theatre in Hanover. It was based on Augustus Prinsep's story collection 'The Baboo and Other Tales Descriptive of Society in India' (1834); the plot is set in British colonial India in 1820.
Plot
The self-satisfied guru and swindler Bäbu has cheated the Indian nobleman Ali Khan out of his property and now wants to marry Ali Khan's daughter Ranijana as well. Ranijana, however, loves Captain Forester, who is returning from England. After several complications, the Bäbu is exposed and handed over to the authorities, while the lovers are united.
Cultural significance
The opera fell into obscurity soon after its premiere and stands among the rare colonial-exotic subjects in the nineteenth-century German operatic repertoire. Only a 2018 production by the Neuburger Kammeroper brought the rarely performed work back to the stage.