About the work
Endlich allein (Alone at Last) is a three-act operetta with music by Franz Lehár and a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Robert Bodanzky. It premiered on 30 January 1914 at the Theater an der Wien under Lehár's own direction, with Mizzi Günther and Hubert Marischka in the leading roles.
Plot
The wealthy, eccentric American Dolly Doverland and Baron Frank Hansen, posing as a mountain guide, are forced by a storm to spend a night together in the mountains. Their enforced closeness and simmering attraction gradually develop into a romance over the course of the piece.
Cultural significance
Lehár set particular store by the through-composed love duet in Act 2, with its clear echoes of Wagner, but the work fell short of expectations, closing after 116 performances. In 1930 he successfully reworked the material as "Schön ist die Welt."