About the work
Operetta in three acts by Oscar Straus, with a libretto by Rudolph Schanzer and Ernst Welisch. It premiered on 11 September 1925 at the Deutsches Künstlertheater in Berlin and was the first German-language operetta after the war to also be staged in Paris.
Plot
In France in 1799 and 1805, the nobleman Count Lavalette marries the singer Teresa, only to be called away immediately into Napoleon Bonaparte's service. Six years later the two meet again in Paris: Teresa is now famous as the prima donna "Teresina", and Lavalette at first fails to recognise her. Even Napoleon courts the celebrated singer, until she reveals her identity and the couple are reconciled.
Cultural significance
The blend of love story and Napoleonic history matched the public taste of 1925 and made "Die Teresina" one of Straus's international successes of the mid-1920s.