About the work
Schwarzwaldmädel is a three-act operetta by Leon Jessel to a libretto by August Neidhart, set in the fictional Black Forest village of Sankt Christoph. It premiered on 25 August 1917 at the (Alte) Komische Oper Berlin and was an immediate success.
Plot
The orphaned Bärbele works as housekeeper for cathedral choirmaster Blasius Römer, who secretly loves her, while she is drawn to the Berlin man-about-town Hans. After mix-ups and a dispute over an inheritance, Bärbele receives her late father's fortune and chooses Hans, leaving the old choirmaster to find solace in his church music.
Cultural significance
Within ten years the work had received around 6,000 performances and remains a model example of the German 'Heimatoperette'. Although composer Jessel was of Jewish descent, the piece remained popular in the early Nazi years as a supposedly quintessentially German work, until performances were banned in 1937.