Eine Nacht in Venedig

Eine Nacht in Venedig (A Night in Venice) is an operetta in three acts by Johann Strauss II. Its libretto was by F. Zell and Richard Genée based on Le Château Trompette by Eugène Cormon and Richard Genée. The farcical, romantic story involves several cases of mistaken identity.

The piece premiered in Berlin on 3 October 1883 in the Neues Friedrich Wilhelmstadisches Theater, and it is the only one of the operettas of Johann Strauss II ever to be premiered outside Vienna. Its initial performance is not the version that we are familiar with today, as the libretto has undergone much revision. Early reviews of the premiere were unfavorable. Although the press at that time praised Strauss's music, they criticized the libretto as banal and silly; for instance, references were made to roast beef made from the sole of a boot and, where the waltz scene was played, the character of Duke Urbino was singing to passages of "meows" in tune with the waltz song which was met with much embarrassment from the Berlin audience.

Unperturbed, Strauss made several alterations to the work with his librettists and scored a triumph in his native Vienna at the Theater an der Wien on 9 October 1883, where it ran for 44 consecutive performances. The operetta was firmly established as one of three Strauss's most recognisable stage works alongside Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron. Strauss also drew themes from the stage work and set them to individual pieces of which Lagunen Walzer Lagoon Waltz op.411 and Die Tauben von San Marco Polka The Pigeons of San Marco op.414 enjoyed enduring popularity. A 1923 production, starring Richard Tauber, used a score and libretto revised by composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold and writer Hubert Marischka, which was later used in other productions and recordings.

The work played at Daly's Theatre in 1884 and 1900 on Broadway in New York. English language versions have included one with a translation by Lesley Storm and lyrics by Dudley Glass that played at the Cambridge Theatre in London in 1944, one for English National Opera in 1976 at the London Coliseum by Murray Dickie and a 1980s production for the Light Opera of Manhattan by Alice Hammerstein Matthias. Ohio Light Opera performed the work in 1981, 1991, 1999 and 2009, recording it in 2000.