About the work
Ten Girls and No Man is a one-act operetta by Franz von Suppé, with a libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Riese. It premiered on 25 October 1862 at the Theater am Franz-Josefs-Kai in Vienna and was Suppé's third operetta.
Plot
A widowed landowner has ten daughters, each raised in the customs of a different country, and advertises in the newspaper for husbands for them. When a veterinarian arrives, however, he courts none of the ten but the housekeeper Sidonia – until he turns out to be the landowner's long-lost son. The father sighs that he now has eleven daughters and only one man.
Cultural significance
The work was quickly taken up abroad, including in Prague, St Petersburg, Warsaw, London and Milan, and shows a more grotesque, burlesque tone schooled on Offenbach compared with Suppé's earlier operettas.