About the work
Die Tänzerin Fanny Elßler is a posthumous operetta in three acts with music by Johann Strauss II, compiled and arranged for the stage by Bernard Grun and Oskar Stalla from sketches and unpublished notes left in Strauss's estate; the libretto is by Hans Adler. It premiered on 22 December 1934 at the Deutsches Theater Berlin.
Plot
The plot freely recounts the story of dancer Fanny Elßler, admired by Prince Esterházy, while the diplomat Friedrich von Gentz tries to use her for his political ends: he lures her with the promise of a prima ballerina post so she will help undermine the ambitions of the Duke of Reichstadt, Napoleon's son. Once Fanny sees through the scheme, she prevails and secures her lover Fournier a transfer to Paris instead of St Petersburg.
Cultural significance
Among its best-known numbers is the Viennese song 'Draußen in Sievering blüht schon der Flieder'; the work belongs to a series of posthumous Strauss operettas assembled from material left at his death during the interwar years, and it is still occasionally revived today.