About the work
Die Kreolin (La créole) is a three-act operetta by Jacques Offenbach, with a libretto by Albert Millaud. It premiered on 3 November 1875 at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris and was already being performed in German-speaking theatres by 1876.
Plot
René has promised marriage to a young woman in Guadeloupe, but his uncle, Captain Immortelle, wants him to marry his ward Antoinette instead once back in France. After a tangle of mistaken identities, it emerges that Immortelle's other ward, Cocua, is in fact that same woman from Guadeloupe; a shipwreck finally brings in an admiral who turns out to be Cocua's long-lost father, resolving everything happily.
Cultural significance
Offenbach laced this farcical mix-up plot with an abundance of buoyant dance music, which helped the operetta succeed well beyond France after its premiere.