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".

Hammerstein turned his focus to light opera, first commissioning Hans, the Flautist from Louis Ganne.

[2] The creative team were chasing the success of The Merry Widow, which was a sensation in New York a few years earlier.

Étienne Grandet, the son of the colony's acting governor, has just returned from a trip to France, and the young ladies warn him that the pirate Bras Pique has been attacking ships bound for New Orleans; the town fountain is supposedly haunted by the ghost of a woman he killed.

Étienne seeks to establish Louisiana as a dictatorship under his own command, separate from both France and the burgeoning United States of America.

A plain-looking girl, Lizette, is ignored by all the men except the boastful Simon O'Hara, Captain Dick's Jewish servant, and she latches onto him.

Marietta tells Dick that it has been foretold that she will love the man who can complete the melody she sang at the fountain, which came to her in a dream.

Sir Harry Blake, Captain Dick's lieutenant, arrives in the square and accidentally betrays Marietta, noting that she is really a casquette girl disguised as a boy.

Governor Grandet's indecisiveness prevents a fight between Étienne's guards and Dick's men, and Marietta runs off with Rudolfo.

Simon has been appointed whipping boy to the Governor's family and has decided to find a better-looking girl than Lizette: he will complete the Contessa's song, and once she is found, she will marry him.

Étienne proposes to Marietta; a marriage to a contessa would legitimize his plan for a Louisiana republic under his control.

[7][8][9] Columbia Records made an album with Nelson Eddy and Nadine Conner in 1948, covering eight highlights.

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

[citation needed] Another album starring Felix Knight and Doretta Morrow (which included Mademoiselle Modiste on the other side) was released in 1953.

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

[3] A television version of the operetta was broadcast live in the United States on January 15, 1955, starring Patrice Munsel and Alfred Drake.

Sweet Mystery of Life" and "I'm Falling in Love With Someone" are included in the score of the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie.

[citation needed] The musical is used as a way of torturing a captured rebel in the 1971 Woody Allen movie Bananas.

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 1974, The New York Times published a short story by Roald Dahl titled "Ah!