About the work
Operetta in a prologue and three acts by Franz von Suppé to a libretto by Richard Genée and Bruno Zappert, first performed on 27 October 1888 at the Carltheater in Vienna – Suppé's last completed operetta.
Plot
In a sequence of changing settings, Count Rudolf travels through Paris, Sweden and Venice, drifting into several romantic escapades while his devoted fiancée Stella secretly follows and watches over him. In the end Rudolf returns to her.
Cultural significance
Vienna's press was divided in 1888: while the newspaper Die Presse praised the libretto as a 'charming love story', other critics felt that the piece, structured as a picture-book sequence with a prologue and three acts, offered little continuous plot beyond a string of typical operetta settings. Suppé's musical invention is considered undiminished, though leaning more lyrical than dramatic.