Publisher Desc.  Karl Millcker (1842-1899) was one of Johann Strauss II's greatest rivals in his lifetime, but his music is almost unknown in England. Der Bettelstudent (The Beggar Student) is an operetta in three acts based on Les Noces de Fernande by Victorien Sardou and The Lady of Lyons by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Millcker's Der Bettelstudent ("The Beggar Student"), the work whose libretto Strauss allegedly rejected in favor of A Night in Venice, has maintained its presence alongside the works of von Supp and Strauss among the greatest hits of German-language operetta, with almost 5,000 productions to date.