Wiener Blut: Aria of the Gräfin

The operetta Wiener Blut was put together after Strauss's death in June 1899: Adolf Müller the younger arranged existing dance music into a score, to a libretto by Victor Léon and Leo Stein, and it opened at the Carltheater in Vienna in October 1899. Gabriele, Gräfin Zedlau, is the central female role, and her solo number draws on the waltz that gives the work its title. The first run failed; the piece established itself only in later revivals, and its numbers are now sung separately as concert items.