[5] However, until Fatinitza in 1876, Suppé did not write a full-length operetta,[1] and, despite the successes of his shorter works, neither he, nor other Viennese composers such as Giovanni von Zaytz, were able to compete with Offenbach for popularity throughout the 1860s.

[1] F. Zell (a pseudonym for Camillo Walzel) and Richard Genée,[2] who had previously adapted the French play Le Réveillon into Strauss's Die Fledermaus[8] – the "most celebrated of all Viennese operas" according to the musicologist Andrew Lamb[9] – returned to French sources, adapting Eugène Scribe's libretto from Daniel Auber's La circassienne (1861) into Fatinitza.

His friend, Julian, a special newspaper correspondent, is mistaken for a spy and dragged to the camp, but Wladimir defuses the situation.

The general temporarily leaves the three to see how the other soldiers are getting on, but, as the first act ends, a band of bashi-bazouks manage to catch the camp by surprise, and take "Fatinitza" and Lydia prisoner.

His wives are highly upset at this, and "Fatinitza" persuades them to aid in his and Lydia's escape, revealing his true identity at the end.

However, Wladimir is able to pass on a message, and, while Julian distracts Pascha, Steipann arranges for the soldiers to slip into the fortress, effecting a rescue.

[1] The composer, lyricists, and theatre would reunite for two more international successes in their next two productions: Boccaccio (1879), Suppé's best-known and most popular operetta;[1] and another cross-dressing army opera in Donna Juanita (1880).

[1] The work was translated back to French by Félix Coveliers for a production at the Fantaisies-Parisiennes in Brussels, which opened on 28 December 1878, despite concerns from Scribe's widow.

[16][17] However, in Paris, she refused permission for the Gaîté to mount the work in that form, and the directors of the Théâtre des Nouveautés, Boulevard des Italiens, therefore procured a much altered libretto from Alfred Delacour and Victor Wilder, and in this form the Paris première was produced at that theatre on 15 March 1879, with costumes by Grévin, running for 59 nights.