The Chocolate Soldier (German: Der tapfere Soldat [The courageous soldier] or Der Praliné-Soldat) is an operetta composed in 1908 by Oscar Straus based on George Bernard Shaw's 1894 play, Arms and the Man. The German language libretto is by Rudolf Bernauer and Leopold Jacobson.[1][2] It premiered on 14 November 1908 at the Theater an der Wien.
English-language versions were successful on Broadway and in London, beginning in 1909. The first film adaptation was in 1915. The 1941 film of the same name enlists much of Straus's music but is otherwise unrelated, using a plot based on Ferenc Molnár's play The Guardsman.
- ^ "Straus, Oscar", schoenberglaw.com (citing Andrew Lamb in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera)
- ^ Ellwood Annaheim (February 2002). "The Chocolate Soldier: Shaw's Folly – Straus' Fortune". Musical Theater Research Project. Archived from the original on 20 June 2005.