Perhaps the best known song in the work is the soprano aria "Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiß",[1] sung by Giuditta in the fourth scene.
Another strong influence, especially for the North African setting, was the 1930 movie Morocco, starring Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper in very similar central roles, she being a singer-dancer, he being a soldier.
[2] The work received its first performance at the Vienna State Opera on 20 January 1934, with Jarmila Novotná and Richard Tauber in the leading roles.
It was produced in Budapest shortly after its introduction in Vienna, and the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, staged a production (translated by André Mauprey) the following season with Kate Walter-Lippert and José Janson in the leading roles.
Janson also featured in the first French performance, at Toulouse in 1936, opposite Mme Chauny-Lasson, but Giuditta, in spite of a handful of provincial productions, did not play in Paris, nor London, nor New York.