About the work
Die Rose von Stambul (The Rose of Stamboul) is an operetta in three acts by Leo Fall, to a libretto by Julius Brammer and Alfred Grünwald. It premiered on 2 December 1916 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna and ranks among the most successful works of the so-called Silver Age of operetta.
Plot
The enlightened Achmed Bey publishes reformist writings under the pen name André Léry so as not to embarrass his father, a government minister. His fiancée Kondja Gül, bound to him by an arranged marriage, unknowingly admires the distant writer André Léry, not realizing he is her own husband. Only in Switzerland, where Kondja flees after their wedding night, does the double identity come to light, and both discover that their feelings for Achmed and for André Léry belong to the same man.
Cultural significance
Alongside Die Dollarprinzessin, the work is among Fall's most frequently staged operettas and was filmed several times, most recently in 1953 with Inge Egger and Paul Hörbiger; a complete recording of the original score was released by Naxos in 2011.