Publisher Desc.  Der Zigeunerbaron is Strauss's second most popular operetta after Die Fledermaus. Its 1885 premiere had political resonance; the plot popularized the Dual (Austro-Hungarian) Monarchy which was to come to an end with the First World War. The aria Als flotter Geist is sung in the first act by the exiled Sandor Barinkay when he returns to Hungary to claim his lands.