About the work
Indigo und die vierzig Räuber (Indigo and the Forty Thieves) was Johann Strauss II's first operetta, opening the series of his sixteen stage works. The libretto, based on the Ali Baba tale from the Arabian Nights, was credited to theatre director Maximilian Steiner but relied heavily on the uncredited help of Richard Genée; it premiered on 10 February 1871 at the Theater an der Wien.
Plot
Shipwrecked Fantasca and Janio end up enslaved at the court of King Indigo, where Fantasca is kept in his harem. When the king falls for her, she and the other women flee disguised as a band of robbers, later returning as if captured thieves to claim the king's own reward for their capture.
Cultural significance
A libretto widely seen as confusing and inconsistent led to a muted reception, and the score is generally judged weaker than Strauss's later masterworks. He reworked the material several times, posthumously as Tausend und eine Nacht in 1906, and the piece travelled internationally, including as Indigo and the Forty Thieves.