The Light Cavalry Overture is the overture

Overture

Overture in music is the term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera...

 to Franz von Suppé

Franz von Suppé

Franz von Suppé or Francesco Suppé Demelli was an Austrian composer of light operas who was born in what is now Croatia during the time his father was working in this outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire...

’s operetta

Operetta

Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...

 Light Cavalry

Leichte Kavallerie

Leichte Kavallerie is an operetta in three acts by Franz von Suppé, with a libretto by Karl Costa. It was first performed in the Carltheater, Vienna on 21 March 1866....

(Leichte Kavallerie in German).

Although the opera is rarely performed or recorded, the overture is one of Suppé's most popular compositions, and has achieved a quite distinct life of its own, divorced from the opera of which it originally formed a part. Many orchestras have the piece in their repertoire, and the main theme of the overture has been quoted numerous times by musicians, cartoons and other media.

The overture has been recorded many times, including by these notable conductors:

• John Barbirolli
  John Barbirolli
  Sir John Barbirolli, CH was an English conductor and cellist. Born in London, of Italian and French parentage, he grew up in a family of professional musicians. His father and grandfather were violinists...
  
   and the Hallé Orchestra
  The Hallé
  The Hallé is a symphony orchestra based in Manchester, England. It is the UK's oldest extant symphony orchestra , supports a choir, youth choir and a youth orchestra, and releases its recordings on its own record label, though it has occasionally released recordings on Angel Records and EMI...
  
   (Archipel Records - ARPCD0373)
• Arthur Fiedler
  Arthur Fiedler
  Arthur Fiedler was a long-time conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a symphony orchestra that specializes in popular and light classical music. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one of the best-known orchestras in the country...
  
   and the Boston Pops Orchestra
  Boston Pops Orchestra
  The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in playing light classical and popular music....
  
   (RCA)
• Herbert von Karajan
  Herbert von Karajan
  Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
  
   and the Berlin Philharmonic (DG - E4777099)
• Erich Kleiber
  Erich Kleiber
  Erich Kleiber was an Austrian conductor.- Biography :Born in Vienna, Kleiber studied in Prague...
  
   and the Berlin Philharmonic (BPH0603)
• Neville Marriner
  Neville Marriner
  Sir Neville Marriner is an English conductor and violinist.-Biography:Marriner was born in Lincoln and studied at the Royal College of Music and the Paris Conservatoire. He played the violin in the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Martin String Quartet and London Symphony Orchestra, playing with the...
  
   and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields (EMI 5856242)
• Riccardo Muti
  Riccardo Muti
  Riccardo Muti, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian conductor and music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.-Childhood and education:...
  
   and the Vienna Philharmonic (EMI CDC 556 336-2)
• Paul Paray
  Paul Paray
  Paul Paray was a French conductor, organist and composer. He is best remembered in the United States for being the resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for more than a decade. He married Yolande Falck on 25 August 1944.-Biography:Paray's father, Auguste, was a sculptor and organist...
  
   and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
  Detroit Symphony Orchestra
  The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its main performance center is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood...
  
   (Philips)
• Gennady Rozhdestvensky
  Gennady Rozhdestvensky
  Gennady Nikolayevich Rozhdestvensky is a Russian conductor.-Biography:Rozhdestvensky was born in Moscow. His parents were the noted conductor and pedagogue Nikolai Anosov and soprano Natalya Rozhdestvenskaya...
  
   and the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra
  Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio
  The Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio is a Russian classical music orchestra established in 1930. Originally founded as the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, it served as the official symphony for the Soviet All-Union Radio network...
  
   (Melodiya - MELCD1001662)
• Georg Solti
  Georg Solti
  Sir Georg Solti, KBE, was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor. He was a major classical recording artist, holding the record for having received the most Grammy Awards, having personally won 31 as a conductor, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to his...
  
   and the Vienna Philharmonic (Decca CS6146)
• George Weldon
  George Weldon
  George Weldon was an English conductor.-Biography:Weldon was educated at Sherborne School and at the Royal College of Music. He studied conducting with Malcolm Sargent and Aylmer Buesst...
  
   and the Philharmonia Orchestra
  Philharmonia Orchestra
  The Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras in Great Britain, based in London. Since 1995, it has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. In Britain it is also the resident orchestra at De Montfort Hall, Leicester and the Corn Exchange, Bedford, as well as The Anvil, Basingstoke...
  
  (Columbia DX 1873)