The Overture of the operetta “The Two Savoyards” stands for a period, during which works by Jacques Offenbach triggered the development of an independent Viennese operetta in the 19th century. It was the one-act play “Le 66” that opened the second summer season of Offenbach’s theater in Paris in 1856. A few years later it reached Vienna, where it fell on fertile ground, as the Carltheater and the Theater an der Wien had become institutions that successfully staged plays that followed French models. They were not only translated, but generally completely revised too, as the plots of Offenbach’s operettas usually attacked the environment of the Second Empire with esprit and parody. This fate consequently generally also held true for the one-act play “No. 66” which became “The Two Savoyards” in Vienna. In addition, its plot was transferred from the region of Stuttgart to France, and the nationality of the leading actors was changed too: Suzon and Piccolo do no longer come from Tyrol, they rather are Savoyards. Apart from some few exceptions the music of Jacques Offenbach completely disappeared from our theaters. Consequently the adaptation of the overture to this one-act play by Siegfried Rundel is more than a clever move. He not only provides wind players and their repertory with a completely unknown overture, he rather reminds us of an essential period in the history of music that eventually brought about the Viennese operetta.