About the work
Der liebe Augustin is an operetta in three acts by Leo Fall, to a libretto by Ernst Welisch and Rudolf Bernauer. It is a thoroughly reworked version of Fall's early, unsuccessful piece Der Rebell (1905) and premiered on 3 February 1912 at the Neues Theater am Zoo in Berlin.
Plot
Twenty years after a failed uprising, two girls are born on the same night: Princess Helene and Anna, the valet's daughter. To avert looming state bankruptcy, Helene is to marry the wealthy Prince Nicola, though she loves her music teacher, Augustin. At the wedding celebration, a lay brother reveals that the two girls were switched at birth: Anna is the true princess and Helene the valet's daughter, freeing Helene to marry Augustin instead.
Cultural significance
With this new version, Fall scored another major success after Der fidele Bauer and Die Dollarprinzessin; the piece is said to have reached well over three thousand performances in total and was adapted for the English stage as Princess Caprice.