About the work
Frau Luna is a burlesque-fantastical costume operetta by Paul Lincke to a libretto by Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers. It premiered on 1 May 1899 at Berlin's Apollo-Theater in a one-act version; the two-act form still used today, with additional numbers such as the march song 'Das macht die Berliner Luft', dates only from 1922.
Plot
Mechanic Fritz Steppke builds a balloon to fly to the moon, where — perhaps only in a dream — he encounters the moon goddess Frau Luna and her court. After assorted romantic entanglements, the earthlings return home realising that things on the moon are no different from life in their own attic flat.
Cultural significance
The premiere is regarded as the birth of Berlin operetta, and Lincke has since been named alongside Johann Strauss (Vienna) and Jacques Offenbach (Paris) as a founder of the genre. 'Frau Luna' remained his only work with such lasting stage presence, surviving in the repertoire through both world wars.