About the work
Operetta in three acts by Richard Heuberger to a libretto by Victor Léon and Heinrich von Waldberg, first performed on 5 January 1898 at the Theater an der Wien. It is based on the French farce Les Dominos roses by Alfred Delacour and Alfred Hennequin (1876).
Plot
During the Paris carnival, two wives set out to test their husbands' fidelity by sending them anonymous invitations to a masked ball, where they are to be recognised by matching pink domino costumes. When a chambermaid adds a third costume of the same colour on her own initiative, a chain of mistaken identities follows that is resolved only at the end, exposing the chambermaid as the real instigator.
Cultural significance
Der Opernball was Heuberger's only lasting stage success. The waltz duet Geh'n wir ins chambre séparée soon took on a life of its own beyond the plot and became a classic of the Viennese operetta repertoire; the work still appears in the programmes of houses such as the Vienna Volksoper.