About the work
Tausendundeine Nacht (A Thousand and One Nights) is an operetta based on music by Johann Strauss II, brought out in Vienna in 1906 in an arrangement by Ernst Reiterer. It interweaves melodies from Strauss's output with an oriental fairy-tale plot in the spirit of the "Arabian Nights".
Plot
Within a fairy-tale oriental plot, entanglements of love, disguise and court intrigue unfold, carried by the spirited waltz and polka melodies of the Waltz King. The operetta uses the motif of the tales of the Thousand and One Nights as a frame for a colourful spectacle of stagecraft.
Cultural significance
The operetta belongs to the posthumously assembled Strauss arrangements that made the composer's melodic legacy usable for the stage. It stands for the enduring popularity of Strauss's melody in the early 20th century.