The Hungarian reception of Johann Strauss’s exceptionally successful Zigeu­nerbaron is an interesting issue not only because of various earlier events in the history of the genre and the composer’s life, but also due to its symbolic signifi­cance for the Hungarian public. Most of the previous scholarship on Hungarian music and Budapest musical theatre tends to ignore the question of reception, therefore this article looks at the series of events that led to the belated, but nev­ertheless successful premiere in 1905, with a special emphasis on audience atti­tudes. Zigeunerbaron was first performed in the Budapest Opera House, an insti­tution struggling to redefine itself in the early twentieth century as a professional musical stage. Strauss’s work belonged neither to the pantheon of Hungarian national music, nor to ‘high culture’. However, it was immensely popular and stirred a heated press debate about the character of the Opera House, its former leaders, such as Intendant István Keglevich, and, ultimately, the character of Hungarian culture altogether. Keglevich’s death in the aftermath of the success­ful premiere further accentuated the local sentiment towards ‘old Hungary’, which was often portrayed to be on the verge of final demise. This, in turn, con­tributed to a positive reception of Strauss’s work in the Opera House, which was Hungary’s principal cultural institution at the time.