Lehár's Zigeunerliebe (Gypsy Love; 1909) is one of three operettas the composer produced in a three-month period following the failure of his Der Mann mit den drei Frauen (1908). Of the three new works, Zigeunerliebe and Der Graf von Luxemburg (The Count of Luxembourg) became international hits.

Zigeunerliebe, with a book by Alfred Maria Willner and Robert Bodanzky, is the story of a young woman, Zorika, who is engaged to Jonel, but is unsure of her feelings toward him. She is at the same time fascinated with the adventurous Gypsy violinist, Józsi. Zorika recalls the popular belief that, if a bride drinks of the water of the Czerna River, she will be able to see the future. After taking a handful of the water, Zorika falls asleep and dreams of a less-than-perfect future with Józsi. When she awakens, she decides to spend her life with Jonel.

Few of Lehár's other scores are as melodically inventive, harmonically daring, and instrumentally colorful; no other score, by Lehár or anyone else, uses Hungarian and Gypsy folk music in such a convincing manner. The libretto is marked by a wide range of dramatic affect, from yearning and doubt to conceit and pretension, from unbounded lust to restrained intimacy. Characters are driven by genuine passion, and their music is fittingly earnest. The Romanian and Hungarian setting of Zigeunerliebe further allowed Lehár to infuse the score with what many perceived as a Balkan flavor, which is really more Hungarian than Romanian.

Many numbers from the operetta became famous, including Zorika's czárdás, "Hör' ich Cymbalklänge" (I hear the sound of cymbals) and Zorika and Józsi's duet, "Es liegt in blauen Fernen" (It lies in the blue distance). Józsi's numbers with czárdás characteristics, "Welche hier von allen würde mir gefallen" (Which of all these would please me?) and "Ich bin ein Zigeunerkind" (I am a Gypsy child), are also audience favorites. As in Der Graf von Luxemburg, the moderato waltz tempo plays an important role, particularly in Zorika's "Gib mir dort vom Himmelszelt" (Give me, from the vault of heaven) and Jonel's "Zorika, Zorika, kehre zurück" (Zorika, Zorika, come back), both of which are marked by a Balkan flavor derived from their rhythms and instrumentation. Zigeunerliebe occasionally ventures into the sonic realm of "serious" opera. When Zorika drinks from the river Czerna and slips into her dream, for example, Lehár ventures into the harmonic waters that Wagner had navigated with his Rhinemaidens. In the end, however, he always finds his way back to the lively language which characterizes his music.

Contemporary critics and theater managers recognized the Puccini-like tendencies of Zigeunerliebe, especially evident in the soaring vocal lines, lush, Romantic orchestration, and the love-story setting free from the comic elements and frivolity of the composer's Der Graf von Luxemburg or Die lustige Witwe. In contrast to these works, Zigeunerliebe is marked by a spirit by melancholy and fantasy.

The original version of the operetta was premiered at the Carltheater in Vienna on January 8, 1910. For a London run that began in July 1812, Lehár added several numbers, including the popular drinking song, "Liebe und Wein" (Love and wine). In 1943, near the end of his life, Lehár revised Zigeunerliebe as the opera Garabonciás diák (The Wandering Scholar) for the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest.

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