Overture to the operetta Indigo und die vierzig Räuber (Indigo and the Forty Thieves)

Program notes

About the Work

The New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic, broadcast each 1 January from the golden Musikverein to tens of millions of viewers worldwide, is among the most cherished rituals in classical music; in 2026 it is led for the first time by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, making his debut on the podium of this most Viennese of occasions. The programme opens with the overture to Indigo und die vierzig Räuber, the work that marked Johann Strauss II’s first venture into the operetta theatre. Premiered at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien in February 1871, It arrived at a time when Viennese composers were answering the Parisian operettas of Offenbach, and it set an Arabian Nights tale loosely drawn from the story of Ali Baba. The critics were divided and the operetta did not hold the stage, but its music was prized, and Strauss later recycled much of it, most famously in the waltz Tausend und eine Nacht. The overture survives as a sparkling concert curtain-raiser, stitching together the score’s best tunes into a single exuberant sweep, an apt way to begin a morning devoted to the Strauss family’s art.

What to Listen For

Like most operetta overtures, this is a pot-pourri: a sequence of contrasting tunes rather than a tightly argued form. Listen for the way Strauss strings together brilliant marches, lilting waltz episodes, and quicksilver dance passages, each handed around the orchestra with his characteristic lightness. The waltz themes that will dominate the morning make an early appearance here, and the whole piece builds to a glittering, applause-courting close: Strauss the showman, setting the festive tone.