Naughty Marietta is an operetta in two acts, with libretto by Rida Johnson Young and music by Victor Herbert.

Set in New Orleans in 1780, it tells how Captain Richard Warrington is commissioned to unmask and capture a notorious French pirate calling himself "Bras Pique".

[3]: 38  The creative team hoped to achieve the success of The Merry Widow, which had been a sensation in Europe and New York a few years earlier.

[5] The costume designer insisted on shifting the period of the show forward 25 years from 1750 to 1775 even though, by then, Louisiana had reverted to Spain, and the American revolutionary war had begun.

Lieutenant Governor Grandet holds them off, knowing Étienne's scheme to establish a breakaway republic with his help.

When the Governor locks her up, she hears a voice outside completing her dream song ("Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life").

[1]: 398 Naughty Marietta then went on tour with Trentini in the lead and Herbert often conducting, passing first to the Montauk Theatre in Brooklyn on the Subway Circuit.

At the tour's final gala performance at Harlem's West End Theatre, she refused an encore of "Italian Street Song" despite Herbert's repeated cues.

[13][14][15] A review in The Buffalo News enthused, "Naughty Marietta is fully up to the Herbert standard, if it does not surpass his other productions."

"[10] The New York Times wrote that the Broadway premiere audience was so enthusiastic it seemed "the roof would come down" and called for Orville Harrold to perform four encores of "I'm Falling in Love with Some One".

[16] The New-York Tribune noted that the applause for Trentini and Harrold "rocked the house" and had high praise for Herbert's score as "far and away better than anything he has written of late years.

[18] A Brooklyn Daily Times critic loved Coini's direction, Merola's conducting, and called Herbert "the Massenet of the world of lighter music", praising him for working wonders with a book and lyrics that "defy description and it would be a waste of time to describe either.

"[19] The Sun's critic wrote that Hammerstein had "a score made to order by Victor Herbert" for Emma Trentini.

[20] By its second week, The Sun asserted, "It is unanimously conceded that this production establishes a new standard for comic opera from every point of consideration.

In November and December of 1910, "I'm Falling in Love with Someone" was covered by John Barnes Wells, Harry Macdonough, and Evan Williams.

[25] By the summer of 1911, Victor Herbert's Orchestra was recording selections from the operetta and releasing medleys like "Gems from Naughty Marietta".

[27] In 1950, Columbia Records released an abridged soundtrack with Nelson Eddy and Nadine Conner conducted by Robert Armbruster.

[28] RCA Victor issued a highlights recording of Naughty Marietta using studio singers and Al Goodman's orchestra.

[29] RCA Victor's Show Time Series featured Mademoiselle Modiste and Naughty Marietta on a 1953 album with Felix Knight and Doretta Morrow.

[31] In 1963, Reader's Digest condensed Naughty Marietta on side 2 of the 4th disc in their 9-LP Treasury of Great Operettas.

[35] A film version of Naughty Marietta was released by MGM in 1935 starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.

[4] An abridged version of the operetta was broadcast live in the United States on January 15, 1955, starring Patrice Munsel and Alfred Drake as part of Max Liebman Presents.

Sweet Mystery of Life" is sung by Elizabeth Patterson; in the 1973 All In the Family episode "Archie The Gambler", the song is sung by Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner, and Sally Struthers; and in the 1990 Designing Women episode "Pearls of Wisdom", Dixie Carter sings the song.

[citation needed] In 1983, Fantasy Island (season 6, episode 9) adapted the musical with Dorothy Hamill as Marietta and Lorenzo Lamas as Richard Warrington.