About the work
Eva is a three-act operetta with music by Franz Lehár and a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Robert Bodanzky. It premiered on 24 November 1911 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, with Louis Treumann and Mizzi Günther, the leading pair from the premiere of "The Merry Widow," in the title roles.
Plot
Eva, an orphan raised among factory workers, falls in love with Octave Flaubert, the factory's new director. Flaubert courts her with gifts but breaks his promise of marriage, and Eva flees to Paris. There he finds her again, regrets his behaviour and finally proposes.
Cultural significance
Between 1909 and 1916 Eva was the Theater an der Wien's biggest operetta success and was even chosen in 1912 to open the opera house in Tripoli. Today it stands in the shadow of Lehár's better-known operettas and is rarely staged in full.