La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein (The Grand Duchess of Gérolstein)

Ah, que j’aime les militaires (Oh, how I love soldiers)

La vie parisienne (Parisian Life)

Duet: L’amour, c’est une échelle immense (Love is an immense ladder)

One reason why Johann II turned to operetta in his late forties - apart from the fact that the theatre was where the big money was to be made - was the challenge to Viennese pride and commerce represented by the popular success of Offenbach opéras-bouffes imported from Paris. La vie parisienne reached Vienna in January 1867, a few months after it was first seen in the French capital, and its immediate successor La Grande Duchesse followed hard on its heels in May of the same year. There were Viennese composers of operetta around at the time, like Suppé and Millöcker, but none of them could compete in sheer verve and wit with such numbers as Ah, que j’aime les militaires - a brilliant rondeau in which the young Grand Duchess indicates her liking for brave and smartly turned-out soldiery with surprising, indeed shameles enthusiasm. And what about the seductive mischief of the “Cloud Duet” from La vie parisienne where a Parisian chambermaid, under instructions to distract the attention of a visiting Swedish Baron, applies her charm with such evident success? Viennese composers at the time could do nothing like it.