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Eine Nacht in Venedig (A Night in Venice) is an operetta in three acts by Johann Strauss II and was premiered in Berlin 1883 in the Neues Friedrich Wilhelmstadisches Theater, and 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, having undergone much revision on the libretto. Early reviews of the premiere in Berlin were unfavorable. Although the press at that time praised Strauss's music, the words that accompanied it were 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 famed Theater an der Wien. It ran for forty four consecutive performances and was firmly established as one of three Strauss's most recognisable stage works alongside Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron.
