About the work
Wiener Frauen is an operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár with a libretto by Ottokar Tann-Bergler and Emil Norini. It premiered on 21 November 1902 at the Theater an der Wien, with the audience favourite Alexander Girardi in one of the leading roles.
Plot
Claire has become engaged to the wealthy Philip Rosner, but her former piano teacher Willibald unexpectedly returns from America and unsettles her feelings. Only once it emerges that Willibald is already married does each character find a suitable partner.
Cultural significance
The work was Lehár's first operetta, written at the same time as the far more successful Der Rastelbinder. Girardi pushed through the interpolation of the so-called Nechledil March against the original score, and it became the evening's hit tune, while the rest of the work was soon forgotten.