Indigo und die vierzig Räuber (Indigo and the Forty Thieves) is an operetta

Operetta

Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...

 composed by Johann Strauss II

Johann Strauss II

Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...

, with a German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 libretto by Maximilian Steiner

Maximilian Steiner

Maximilian Steiner was an Austrian actor and theater manager.Steiner was manager of Vienna's Theater an der Wien from 1869 to 1875 with Marie Geistinger, a Viennese actress, and from 1875 to 1880 on his own...

 based on the tale "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights

The Book of One Thousand and One Nights

One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age...

.

Performance history

It was first staged on 10 February 1871 at the Theater an der Wien

Theater an der Wien

The Theater an der Wien is a historic theatre on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district of Vienna. Completed in 1801, it has seen the premieres of many celebrated works of theatre, opera, and symphonic music...

 in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. It was initially granted a warm reception by Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

's theatre-going public, but the press was more divided in opinion. Typical published reactions were: "It consists of dance music on which Strauss has overlaid text and characters ... A man of Strauss' reputation should never have allowed his name to be associated with such a venture ... It is an interesting production and is a foretaste of great things to come."

The work was successfully restaged in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 in 1875 under the title Queen Indigo, then, rechristened A Night on the Bosphorus, it was presented in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1876.

Finally, after Strauss' death, the operetta was entirely reworked in 1906 by Max Steiner

Max Steiner

Max Steiner was an Austrian composer of music for theatre productions and films. He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Trained by the great classical music composers Brahms and Mahler, he was one of the first composers who primarily wrote music for motion pictures, and as...

 and staged in Vienna under yet another title, The Thousand and One Nights, which is also the title of one of Strauss' waltzes (Tausend und eine Nacht

Tausend und eine Nacht

Tausend und eine Nacht op. 346 is a waltz composed by Johann Strauss II in 1871. The waltz's melodies were drawn from his first-ever operetta Indigo und die vierzig Räuber...

 op. 346) of which the melodies were drawn from the stage work.

Max Schönherr

Max Schönherr

Max Schönherr was an Austrian composer, arranger and conductor.-Biography:Schönherr studied in Graz and was a composer of light orchestral music in Vienna. Outside of his native country, Schönherr was best known for his Austrian dances. His Austrian Peasant Dances, Op 14, recorded in the 1940s,...

 later reworked the ballet music from this work into a concert piece, and this version has been recorded.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 10 February 1871 (Conductor: - )
Janio	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...	Albin Swoboda, Sr. Albin Swoboda, Sr. Albin August Heinrich Emil Swoboda was an Austrian operatic tenor, actor, and opera director of German birth. One of the most famous opera singers of the "Golden Age" of Viennese operetta, he was a leading tenor and dramatic stage actor at the Theater an der Wien from 1859-1878...
Indigo	tenor	Carl Matthias Rott
Ali Baba	tenor	Jani Szika
Romadour	baritone	Carl Adolf Friese
Fantasca	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
Piastrella	soprano
Empress	soprano