About the work
Der Teufelsreiter (The Devil's Rider) is an operetta by Emmerich Kálmán to a libretto by Rudolph Schanzer and Ernst Welisch, premiered on 10 March 1932 at Vienna's Theater an der Wien with Hubert Marischka in the title role; its Hungarian original title is Az ördöglovas.
Plot
The plot draws on the legend of Hungarian Count Sándor Móric, nicknamed the "Devil's Rider" for his reckless feats of horsemanship, including taming a supposedly unrideable horse in London: with similar daring, a Hungarian cavalry officer wins the heart of Princess Leontine and ultimately prevails over the scheming of Chancellor Metternich.
Cultural significance
Kálmán composed the work shortly after scoring the film Ronny (1931); it was the last of his operettas to premiere in Vienna before his emigration, and he later reused some of its numbers in his American operetta Marinka (1945).