1870s Vienna "Permissiveness"

The 1870’s saw a period of considerable moral permissiveness in Vienna as elsewhere, even though the rules of conduct were outwardly strict. ‘Pleasure’ as represented by escape from the ‘rule’ and the family, was mainly a masculine preserve, and the dancers at Prince Orlofsky’s party show the demi-monde in contact with society, whose pleasure-ground it was and off whom it lived. Masks covered so wide a multitude of sins that some ‘respectable’ ladies with their help might hope for a little discreet adventure on their own account.

The New Kobbe’s Complete Opera Book. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1976. p. 344 footnote.