“For lovers of operetta, it is probably no overstatement to hail this work as the operetta discovery of the 21st century” Peter Kemp, The Johann Strauss Society of Great Britain On 3rd and 4th December 2009, the first performances for 111 years of Johann Strauss II’s final operetta, Die Göttin der Vernunft (The Goddess of Reason), took place at the Fatra Palace of Arts in Zilina, Slovakia. This is the world premiere recording of the complete work. Set in the town of Chalons near the German border at the time of the French Revolution during the Reign of Terror in 1794, its light-hearted mockery of the aristocracy, morality and the army, controversial at the time, seems as harmless now as that of Bernstein’s ebullient opera Candide. Abounding in waltz tunes and marches, its exuberant music is vintage Strauss. For this recording Christian Pollack has reconstructed the score as it would have been heard on its opening night with additional items that Strauss added for its 25th performance.