Conspiratorial plots, intrigues and affairs at the court of Austrian Empress Maria Theresa dominate the scenario of Die Kaiserin. However, the true focus of this wrongly forgotten operetta by Leo Fall (1873-1925) is formed by the steadfast love between the empress and her prince consort Francis Stephen of Lorraine. With a generally accurate historical libretto, the operetta was supposed to keep abreast of the times both in its music and content while avoiding all-too-obvious references to current political events, common practice in the operetta genre at the time of its 1915 Berlin premiere.