Leichte Kavallerie

Leichte Kavallerie
Operetta by Franz von Suppé
The composer of the operetta, c. 1885
Translation	Light Cavalry
Librettist	Karl Costa
Language	German
Premiere	21 March 1866 (1866-03-21) Carltheater, Vienna

Leichte Kavallerie (Light Cavalry) is an operetta in two acts by Franz von Suppé, with a libretto by Karl Costa [de]. It was first performed in the Carltheater, Vienna, on 21 March 1866.

The original work is set in a 19th-century Austrian village where several love intrigues and the discovery of a father-daughter relationship are accompanied by the arrival of a regiment of hussars. In 1934, Hans Bodenstedt [de] completely rewrote the operetta. It was set in the 18th century amid the court intrigues of a Baron and his Hungarian Countess lover, whose ballet company is referred to as the "light cavalry".

While much of the operetta remains in relative obscurity, the Light Cavalry Overture is one of Suppé's best known works. The music from the operetta was used as the soundtrack of a film of the same name in 1935.^[1]