Letter Aria “O mon cher amant” (Oh my dear love) from La Périchole

“Ah, que j’aime les militaires” (Oh, how I love soldiers) from La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein (The Grand Duchess of Gérolstein)

One reason why Johann Strauss turned to operetta was the challenge to Viennese pride and commerce represented by the popular success of the Offenbach opéras-bouffes regularly imported from Paris. To make matters worse, they often included dance tunes to rival Vienna’s best - like the charming slow waltz to which La Périchole, a street-singer in Lima, assures her partner-in-song Piquillo that she still loves him in spite of her new status as favourite lady-in-waiting to the Viceroy of Peru.

Offenbach’s La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein was first performed in Paris in April 1867 and brought to Vienna only a month later. It was clear to anyone who saw it that, although there were decent composers of operetta in Vienna at the time, like Suppé and Millöcker, 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.